Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I assure the Deputy that my departmental officials, administrative and IT, are working flat out to resolve this issue. I am not pointing the finger at anybody. When my Department hit the "pay" button in respect of GLAS, some applications did not get through the system. In terms of what needs to happen now, all of the outstanding applications will have to be scrutinised. The problems presenting relate to compatibility between GLAS actions and plots submitted under basic payment scheme applications and so on. Very often a bespoke IT solution is required to address these issues. It is, unfortunately, a slow process but the issues are being worked through as quickly as possible. Neither I nor my Department has a vested interest in delaying payments to farmers. We are working flat out to resolve this issue.

I wish I were in a position to give a definitive timeline for when it can be resolved. I assure the Deputy it is not an issue of resources within the Department, nor is it an issue of pointing fingers. The issues that arose when the payments did not proceed are such that we have to eyeball every application that did not go through. We have to identify the reason each payment did not go through and then find IT solutions to enable payments to go through.

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