Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate that. I understand that the reason for the interim payment was because of the delays and difficulties, but I come back to the point that very many farmers do not know what scores they were awarded. They have seven to ten plots but they do not know the score for each plot. As the Minister is aware, they also have an opportunity to enhance those scores through non-productive investments, NPIs, whereby they can do fencing, gates, hedging or whatever else. They do not know where they stand in that respect either because it is not open to them yet, although they are rolling into the next year. Some of them have had a second round of inspections and they still do not know the results of the first round. The co-operation element seems to be the most difficult aspect to try and sort out. Matters seem to be somewhat easier when it comes to the general scheme, but there are problems with this as well.

One of the issues we have - this relates to all agriculture sectors - is that every time schemes are rolled out by the Department, there are delays and difficulties. People cannot get payments and they do not know where they stand. If there is even a small problem, their money is held up. This seems to be an ongoing issue with the Department that one of the Ministers needs to deal with.

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