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

I thank Deputy Cassells for his understanding. I appreciate the imperative that he has laid down in terms of getting these payments out as quickly as possible.

GLAS is probably the most complicated of schemes. There are over 30 separate menu options available to farmers under the scheme. When we cross-reference those actions to the basic payment application, the individual plots therein and the actions, it gives rise to a complicated scenario that, in turn, has given rise to difficulty.

The truth is that in December when we pressed the "pay" button, we had hoped that everyone would be paid and had financial provision made for that. Unfortunately, as the record shows, a substantial number were not. We continue to work through all of these. The reality is that we have had to eyeball every application to find out the specific issue, whether there is a fundamental problem relating to the basic payment application or a question of plots that are split and actions on plots that do not correlate. Another question is whether the problem goes back to an error in our processing. It is complicated but I assure the Deputy that it has the necessary urgency. I cannot specifically give a time but I assure the Deputy we are making every effort to get these payments out quickly.

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