Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It is a disgrace that 3,000 farmers across the country are still waiting for GLAS payments in May 2017 and over 1,200 are awaiting payments under AEOS. The Minister and Department made a commitment that they would be paid in October 2016. Then another commitment was made that they would be paid in December 2016. At a recent farmer's charter of rights meeting, the Minister and Department committed that all payments would be made by the end of April.

On three occasions deadlines were set and promises made and on three occasions they have been not been met and have been broken. As a result, over 4,000 farmers across the country are waiting on GLAS and AEOS payments.

On a county basis, 200 farmers in Donegal and as many as 400 in Galway are waiting on GLAS payments. The situation is totally unacceptable and it is a political failure on the part of the Minister to manage the issue and ensure farmers are paid on time. If it was the other way around and farmers were not compliant with the scheme, the Department would come down on them and would not be behind the door in terms of applying penalties. Yet, whenever the problem is at the Minister's end and he fails to live up to his responsibilities and promises, he expects a free pass.

I know it is probably a fruitless exercise to ask the Minister to set another deadline and make another promise but can he tell us when the outstanding payments will be made? Can tell us how many GLAS 1 and 2 farmers are on the Department's system? How many have withdrawn from the scheme and how many will be ineligible for payments as per the Department's calculations?

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