Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)

If someone from my Department tells a farmer that he or she will be paid within days, I expect that to happen. I note that last year, payments in general in my Department were way ahead of any previous year on record. I refer to the timeliness of payments such as disadvantaged area payments, single farm payments and those AEOS payments that could be made on time. They were significantly ahead of the previous year.

A specific problem arose by which the Deputy's constituent or client was frustrated, and understandably so. I believe that approximately 1,500 people were in that category. I was not happy about this because it led to a perception that my Department was not dealing in an efficient way with payments in general. I have tried to change this and the AEOS team has been in my office on numerous occasions to try to find a way to get this job done quicker. The issue has pertained to mapping, the fact that the Department tenders out the digitisation services for that mapping, as well as the interaction between the Department, farmers and the company that provides the digitising for the Department. All I can tell the Deputy is the likelihood of a repeat of such delays is extremely slim now that maps have been digitised and full data are available on a computer screen.

See this speech in context