Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Kerrane for raising this matter. I know it is something to which both she and I have a strong commitment and it is something I ensured was subject to a commitment in the programme for Government as I had raised it significantly on the Opposition benches. It is important we recognised that and reflected it through a forgotten farmers scheme which would set that to rights, as such. That is a commitment I have given and one on which significant preparatory work has been carried out within my Department. It is something I hope to step out in the coming months in terms of actioning it.

The challenge in recent years has been to make sure we get the new CAP right. That has put pressure on resourcing and preparation, including on the development of IT systems, among others. I want to make sure there will not be any legacy issue in the future following the delivery of this CAP programme that a future Minister will be seeking to correct in ten or 15 years. As last year was the first year of the new CAP, all efforts and energies were put into delivering and developing those schemes. Likewise, in the previous year as well, all resources were significantly stretched to make sure the preparations for the effective roll-out of the CAP were put in place and the systems developed.

In recent months I have had a team in my Department scoping out the IT capacity to be able to deliver a scheme. We have significant preparatory work done also on the definition of forgotten farmers. I will be engaging with the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform on plotting a way forward and delivering a payment that reflects the fact that many of these farmers were not able to avail of some of the young farmers' schemes at the time - because they were discontinued - which other farmers would have been able to avail of previously and subsequently.

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