Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am sure Deputy Creed expects to be Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine for a very long time and my understanding from farmers is that they want to keep him as Minister for a long time. While there might be a new Taoiseach, I am sure Deputy Creed will still be there and taking questions here. Again, I expressed his apologies at the outset that he could not take the debate here himself.

The online payment claims system has been open since July 2016 but to date a low number of payment claims have been submitted as compared with the number of approvals requested. Of the 1,368 payment claims submitted to date, 847 have been paid. Payments are issuing on an ongoing basis. Payments in the amount of more than €10 million have been made. The current outstanding payment claims, of which there are 521, generally fall into the following four categories, with the estimates percentages as well. Some 75% of claims are clean cases. These are cases where the claims application is fully in order and being worked on and should issue soon. Claims where there is an obvious error on the application form which the regional inspector is examining on an ongoing basis with payments then issuing represent 10% of cases. A further 10% of cases involve an issue with the claim which will lead to a reduction in payment but no incurred penalty. The IT functionality to process these claims is expected to be operational in early June. Approximately 5% of cases are those where there was an issue with the claim which will lead to both a penalty and a reduced payment. The IT functionality to process these claims is expected to be operational in July.

Delivery of the full IT functionality to allow for the processing of payment claims where a penalty is to be applied is being developed. Issues with individual payment claims are being resolved on an individual basis through direct contact by the Department with the farmer concerned or his or her advisor. I do not have the county-by-county breakdown but I trust the figures Deputy Ferris has for Kerry are correct. I cannot confirm them. The Minister is determined that this issue will be resolved where the cases are straightforward. In this case, 75% of claims are clean and straightforward and he hopes to progress them as quickly as he possibly can. The Department will work hard to make that happen.

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