Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The whole point of the scorecard is to lead farmers to make informed decisions around their NPI. Many farmers, including myself, are being contacted by farm planners. They are giving us the menu of options and most of us are standing back because we do not have a scorecard and are not sure what we are doing. Should we go off and invest this if it will not change things materially? It would offer comfort if the Minister were to say that when scorecards are eventually issued to everyone, the potential increased payment will be backdated for the period in which they were sitting at home waiting for it to issue.

For budget 2025, which is imminent, and other budgets and schemes that may follow, is there an administrative wing in the Department large enough to roll this out? The Minister is responsible for leading this out and he has done a very good job in his Department along with the Ministers of State, but is the administrative Civil Service wing large enough to carry out these schemes and ensure that they are well oiled and that payments go out on time? It is particularly devastating for a farmer who contacted me recently. The farm is locked in probate because someone passed away. He is locked out of payments for all of 2023 and 2024 and they are backlogged. He will eventually get them but it is devastating. You would not ask somebody to take on the local shop, supermarket or other enterprise following the death of a parent and expect them to run it. Farms run on empty very often, so this payment is all-important.

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