Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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Question 64: To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food the reason REPS 4 applicants have not been paid 12 months after they submitted their applications; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5282/09]

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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REPS 4 is a measure under the current Rural Development Programme 2007-13 and is subject to different EU regulations from the preceding versions of REPS. Under REPS 4, all payments are to be made in just two instalments. The first payment of 75% can be made only when all administrative checks on all 2008 applications for REPS 4 and the single payment scheme are completed. These include checks on areas and on plan details and the controls have to satisfy stringent EU regulatory and audit requirements.

Some 9,800 REPS 4 plans have been prepared using eREPS, the electronic planning system approved and funded by the Department. The information on these plans is in computerised format and it was necessary to develop an appropriate computer-based control system for checking them. This was a lengthy process and the system was only available from late autumn. The substantial minority of plans submitted this year that were not prepared using eREPS — about 3,000 — have to be checked manually and this is extremely time-consuming. Industrial action in the Department's local offices last year meant that this part of the process was delayed. In the circumstances, the Department sought some flexibility from the European Commission which would have allowed payment of those REPS 4 cases which had been fully cleared, but the Commission was not prepared to allow it.

The first payments for 2008 REPS 4 applications were issued in the last week of January to those whose applications required no correction following the administrative checks. Further payments continue to be made.

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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For thousands of farmers awaiting payment under REPS 4, that explanation will not wash. Notwithstanding administrative checks or industrial relations disputes, applications have been with the Department since late 2007, yet neither the Minister or his officials has been in a position to communicate directly with these farmers until now to tell them that there has been such an administrative problem. Teagasc and private planners are clearly stating that this problem emanates from the Minister's Department and that they were never apprised of any additional requirements for REPS 4 when they were submitting their original applications.

I suggest that the Minister go back to the European Commission post-haste and seek permission to pay immediately REPS 4 entitlements for the first year, given the cash difficultly in which farmers find themselves. Let us use the intervening period between payment for the first year and the second year to resolve outstanding administrative difficulties that have arisen.

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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I am also concerned with the delay in getting out a REPS payment for which the funding has been provided and is in place. Almost 11,000 applications were submitted until 15 May 2008, which were related to 2007. Of the 12,292 REPS 4 applications in 2008, only 11% passed all the administrative checks. We went to Europe towards the end of the year and we sought permission from the European Commission to continue the previous system whereby advance payments would be issued. The European Commission would not allow us to do so. I do not agree with the statements made by some private planners and by some people in Teagasc that it is the fault of the Department.

There are obvious errors in these applications. There are decimal points in the wrong place and there are missing documents——

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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For God's sake, decimal points should not hold up applications.

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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This influences the technology. These are minor errors, but there also errors in which plans are omitted and where there are inadequate biodiversity provisions. The Department officials have gone back to many individual farmers and their planners and have been in a position to rectify the errors made by the people who submitted the plans in the first place. We want to eliminate the disparities involved. More than 2,000 payments have been issued up until last Monday, and they continue to be issued every day. I do not accept that if plans are sent in with obvious errors, it is somehow the fault of the receiving Department.

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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It is the fault of the receiving Department, because for over 14 months it has failed to communicate advice in any way to individual applicants or their planners that there has been a difficulty, be it a decimal point or a biodiversity plan. There is a different interpretation being taken and if these people were not apprised of different interpretations of biodiversity under REPS 4, then that is a failure of communication on the part of the Minister's Department.

Given the cash flow difficulties of farmers, can the Minister not make arrangements to pay? He should go to Brussels, use the Government's muscle and make arrangements to pay the first year of the scheme. He should give an assurance that in the intervening period, the outstanding issues can be resolved with the individual farmers and their planners.

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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I said that there was a range of errors from omission of plans to wrongly designated areas. Surely the official examining that particular application in the Department is not responsible for sending in the wrong information——

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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The Minister has not communicated with the farmers in 14 months.

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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During the course of 2008, REPS 4 was not the only REPS programme analysed and funded by the Department. The Department paid out €330 million in 2008 under the REPS 3 programme. Those applications were processed and paid out. The European Commission has made it known to us in no uncertain terms that it wants all applications checked and all errors rectified before payments can be issued.

A new measure introduced by the Department will make it compulsory for REPS planners to submit all plans using eREPS, which is the Department's electronic planning system. This system will include built-in automatic checks which will ensure that information provided by planners avoids the main errors discovered in the recent administrative checks. This will considerably reduce the time taken up by the process of administrative checks. If the planner submits an application that contains an error, the Department's technology will reject that application and this will eliminate errors. The Department put considerable resources into putting in place this particular technological system.

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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Not good enough.

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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Very substantial funds have been issued and are being issued.