Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We have issued 35,000 scorecards so far. It is important farmers get that so they can look to improve their scores in future years. Farmers do not know how they will score until they get the scorecard. That is a change from previous schemes. The average payments of €5,200 for the co-operation and €5,100 for the general are on track and where we expected them to be, but there is significant variation at farm level depending on the score. There has been significant work in recent months on getting scorecards out, and that continues. Approvals will be given for the NPIs that have been applied for by the end of this year so farmers can undertake works and be paid for them. They will improve their score going forward. We have recently reopened that.

We intervened to ensure that, as of March last year, every farmer had received 85% of their advance payment, or €4,000 or €5,000. We did that because I did not want farmers to be waiting, like in many cases in the past, for their first payment. I understood that where they had carried out the work, it is important they received the payment.

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