Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will brief the Deputy afterwards if he so wishes. We will try to get to the bottom of this as quickly as possible and work with gardaí to do so. This is public money being spent and it is co-financed by European budgets.

We must ensure invoices are real and that the numbers of trees and hedgerow plants supposedly purchased are planted, so we are paying for work that is done. There is a concern about those issues in these cases. Some farmers may have got caught up in this although they have done nothing wrong. We need to get to the bottom of it as quickly as we can by helping the Garda to do this, and as soon as this happens, we will make good on the payments due. I have an obligation to ensure that if there is any fraud, it is exposed.

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