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

-----and farmers have the option to repay the superlevy over a three-year period in interest-free instalments. By and large, farmers understand that.

This is a separate issue. It is an issue we cannot avoid. It is an issue of public money being spent on land, some of which was not eligible. It is a relatively small amount. In percentage terms, it is a small percentage of farmers who are involved, but obviously, for those farmers, it is a big issue.

I cannot send Deputy Ó Cuív the figures on what portion of the end figure farmers will pay until we know what the end figure is and until we make decisions around penalties, etc., but what I can send him is the amount of money that farmers have been asked to pay already. Where farmers have a small amount to repay, we have taken that from their single farm payment to get those farmers out of the problem area, which is what they wanted - we spoke to farming organisations about this. There is a relatively small percentage of farmers who have an issue here and we will try to deal with them in a way that manages cash flow and that certainly does not put farmers out of business.

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