Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It is unacceptable that it is now February 2017 and some 9,000 of the farmers who were promised by the Minister and his Department under the farmers charter that they would receive 85% of their GLAS payments in October last year have still not received their first payment. I asked the Minister for specifics on why this has happened. According to the Minister's reply, the Department was unable to process approximately 9,000 of the 37,000 applications because there were errors or issues with them. Farmers only learn about such errors or issues after they have failed to receive their payments. I do not accept that there could be 9,000 applications in respect of which administrative errors arose such that the Department has been unable to process them thus far.

Perhaps the Minister will elaborate on what IT issues fed into the delay in terms of processing payments. What are the IT problems and why were they not identified and dealt with sooner by the Minister? Many of the farmers concerned are due an average payment of €4,500, which they had banked on having before Christmas but they still have not received their payments. This matter needs to be sorted out immediately. I would also welcome a full explanation today from the Minister in terms of his oversight of this mess.

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