Bobby Aylward (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Department's administration of some recent farm schemes was branded totally unacceptable by the IFA as recently as last month.

I understand the IFA requested meetings with the Minister to ensure the situation is taken under control as a matter of urgency. Will the Minister of State facilitate a meeting with the IFA? The IFA President Joe Healy has said the GLAS payments controversy, difficulties with TAMS payments and issues over the administration of the knowledge transfer scheme are evidence of serious problems within certain areas of the Department.

I began to chase up the TAMS issue in August 2016 with the agricultural liaison officer in the Minister's office. I then followed up with parliamentary questions in September and October. For four months the most up-to-date information I could get was a reply that stated that all applications received in each tranche have to be checked for administrative issues before they are then ranked and selected, and that this process was under way for the 2,000 applications received in tranche 3. A late payment might finally have gone through in early December, which would leave dairy farmers maybe six or weeks at best to complete the works applied for before the cows calve in January and they have to start milking. The barriers imposed on these farmers are completely out of order and there is a serious problem that needs to be rectified. It is a question of the timescale from when the applications are accepted. These farmers might have started milking in January and February with the spring calving, and they do not have time to get everything in order because of delays at departmental level.

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