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

In explaining these matters to the farmers who are waiting, I accept that I am losing but I will give the Deputy some information on the number of applicants paid on the preliminary payment date and on how the situation has improved. That is attributable to the Department staff who are working to accelerate the process. In 2015, 100,000 applicants were paid on the first day the payments issued. That figure has been steadily improving. Some 114,000 were paid on the first day in 2019. There has been a steady improvement. As I have said, to date 97.5% of applicants have been paid, that is 119,000 out of 135,000. There is always a residual core of difficult cases. These difficulties arise from many different issues including overclaims, commonages and remote sensing, some of which is contracted out resulting in a wait for stuff to come back in.

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