Andrew Doyle (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy can make flippant comments if he wishes but I am trying to answer the question that was put to me. This time last year, 27,300 farmers had been paid, which was only 72% of the active participants at that time. At the end of this week, 49,700 will have been paid, which is 87% of participants. Improvements have been made although I know that is cold comfort to the people who have been left behind. Deputy Healy-Rae, whose office is located in the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, will acknowledge that people are working night and day to try to get all of the claims picked through and sorted out. Some of the applications have had to be done on an individual basis. When the pay button was hit but the applicants were not paid, the applications had to be manually re-examined, as far as I understand it. That is the nearest I can come to defining the IT issue.

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