Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)

The Senator and the House can be assured there will be adequate human resources to deal with the ongoing work of the Department in administering our various schemes. The fact that we paid out over €1 billion on the first day of a new scheme illustrates the efficiency of the Department in that regard. Our neighbouring jurisdiction has not yet issued its payments but over 85% of farmers, some 118,500, received payments to which they were entitled on the morning of 31 December 2005. It was a mammoth task.

I, together with the Minister for Agriculture and Food, Deputy Coughlan, and senior management at the Department will ensure that adequate resources are provided, in terms of personnel and information technology, to ensure these schemes are run in the most efficient way possible and that we have appropriate interaction with the farming community. Farmers with queries can be assured they will receive the utmost assistance from our Department's offices, both at headquarters and locally.