Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I would have believed that the whole idea of having an IT system was to have one that is fit for purpose such that it does not have to be revisited every time one comes up against a problem. One should not need to come up with bespoke amendments to the IT system to try to deal with the job that must be done by it. As I stated, there are 9,000 farmers in GLAS still awaiting payment, and there are 4,000 farmers in the AEOS whom I understand have not been paid yet. These are farmers whom the Department promised would be paid back in October. To say this is not a resources issue just does not stand up. To say the position on the IT system is acceptable does not stand up either. If the Department had been seeking to pay the moneys back in October and the Minister had been working to ensure this, these issues would have been spotted then. It was only after the payment was not made that the Minister sought to inform farmers there was a issue and to try to rectify it.

Farmers are waiting for 85% of their payments. Is it possible that the Minister could seek sanction from the European Union to pay the farmers the 85%, for which they are so desperately waiting, and then work through the issues that exist? The Minister is telling me the applications have to be eyeballed one by one and that the resources are all in place to do so. Unfortunately, this will go on for weeks or months unless the Minister gets a handle on it and finds a mechanism to pay the farmers, many of whom are in desperate financial circumstances because they were expecting to be paid months ago.

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