Seymour Crawford (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)

I seek the adjournment of the Dáil under Standing Order 32 to raise an urgent matter of local and national importance, namely, the need for the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and his Department to pay the correct single farm payments and area based payments to thousands of farmers, given that the full applications were submitted last April. It is important for the Minister to explain why these forms were not examined at a much earlier stage and does he realise that many farmers are depending on these payments to meet urgent bills and bank loan repayments, and that the delay in payments is causing serious problems to their banking reputations? I appreciate that a large number of farmers have received some payments, but in many cases this is only a portion of what they are entitled to.

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