Violet-Anne Wynne (Clare, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire. I appreciate, and I believe a lot of farmers appreciate, that there has been a huge uptake on ACRES and that this would have caused difficulties. At this point, however, they are frustrated and their patience has waned. I will give a bit of context. I recently met with members of the IFA in my office in Clare. They outlined their full discontent at this situation and especially about the repayments. For context, in County Clare agriculture contributes over €1 billion to the local economy and 12,000 people are employed directly or indirectly in agriculture. More than 20% of the working population in County Clare is involved in agri-related jobs and there are more than 6,000 individual family farms in the county. We know the background and the history and that they were to receive their payments in November. Some did receive it in February and March, as the Minister has outlined. The Minister said that 95% will have received the payment by the end of this month and this is what he is aiming for. I am just curious as to why that would not be the full 100%. Is there an appeals process in respect of the scorecards for farmers? Is this an independent individual who would process those appeals?

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