Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

That response does not give any help to the farmers I know in my constituency. There are probably about ten I have on my books at the moment who are getting no money. They are elderly farmers who are computer illiterate and they did not tick the box. In fact, three of those farmers never said a word that they failed to get their grants until their accountant discovered it because they were ashamed of the fact they failed to get their grant. There are rules and regulations and all of that but there also has to be some sort of what we would call fairness in the system. When somebody genuinely makes a mistake and genuinely did not realise what he or she did or did not do, all the rules in Europe give that person no comfort when he or she is being 100% penalised. For the sake of making sure the farmers who need this are treated properly, I ask that a review be done. It would cost very little within the overall budget within the Department.

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