Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Probate is always an issue and will always, unfortunately, hold up a payment. Probate has to be completed because there has to be legal certainty as to who the payment is made to after a death. That can always be challenged during the probate process so the Department has to have that certainty. That is an issue we cannot resolve but will try to work through, being as supportive as we can.

Across the schemes there has been a strong outcome. The new schemes have got up and running well. The most complex and challenging has been ACRES but much work, effort and resources have gone into it. I am confident going into year two that the issues that arose in year one will be ironed out and resolved. We have worked hard over the course of this year to address those issues. It has not been satisfactory in terms of the delays. That has been part of the administrative challenge of it. Everybody has worked hard to get it going and we have taken the intervention steps as well to ensure farmers get payment. The scoring is really important and scorecards continue to go out. The payment the farmer gets is entirely dependent on the score. We will be making announcements and giving approvals-----

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