Joe McHugh (Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I welcome the Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture and Food, Deputy Brendan Smith, to the House. My Adjournment matter involves an issue close to his heart as the Minister of State's constituency has many agricultural issues.

The specific issue concerns farmers' access to information. Mechanisms are in place which work, and many advisory bodies such as Teagasc do a phenomenal job in getting information to farmers and clarifying matters in the bureaucratic regime in which we live. Diligent people work at departmental level and perform in the face of many constraints because they must deal with a plethora of issues. As more legislation is introduced, more issues will raise their heads.

However, we have entered a new period in agriculture with an increasing amount of legislation coming from European directives and at national level, and it is becoming more of a headache for farmers. More information and clarification is required on a daily basis, not on a weekly or monthly basis. Increased legislation and bureaucracy creates a need for more information. We must also take into consideration that farming practices have changed. In the past, a farm set-up could have two heads of household. A husband could be in the farmyard while his wife was at home. Farming practice has changed, and many farmers involved in part-time farming are therefore not as available as much to make phone calls to the Department's offices. They may be at other work, for example.

I am specifically calling for the Department to look at the possibility of introducing lo-call numbers at a regional level, or even a freefone number for farmers, where they can have 24-hour access to information at departmental level. With advanced communications systems and technology, as well as information systems, this is not too much to ask. It is important that the idea of having access to information for farmers is put on the record and advanced at least to a debating stage.

Extra staff are required. The staff currently working at Department level, in the midlands or in the peripheral areas that have Department offices, are overworked. They must deal with many information queries, and in doing this they are not able to facilitate every farmer every time. Farmers can become infuriated and frustrated, perhaps as a result of having to stay on the phone line for an hour or an hour and a half. Time is at a premium for many people, no more so than farmers. If we are to introduce layers of bureaucracy and legislation, making it ever more difficult and turning farming into an administrative business, it is important we facilitate the new measures.

We should facilitate farmers with regard to their time constraints as they may be working on a part-time basis. Such farmers do not have time to be on a phone for an hour or an hour and a half, waiting for a person on the other end to give them a small piece of information. It is imperative that something is done sooner rather than later. Farmers are stellar custodians of the landscape and are still fighting a battle. Future generations of farmers still wish to partake in farming practice. It is incumbent on us to make it easier for this to happen and to facilitate farmers.

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I thank Senator McHugh for raising this issue and his complimentary remarks on the officials in the Department and Teagasc.

Dissemination of information to farmers is accorded a very high priority by the Department. The full range of communication channels are employed to ensure widespread availability of information on the schemes and activities of the Department of Agriculture and Food. Each year, the Department produces a booklet entitled Schemes and Services, which is distributed widely and is also available on the Department's website. This sets out details of the schemes and services operated by the Department along with basic conditions, rates of payment and administrative locations for these schemes. These are available free of charge from headquarters or from local offices of the Department. They are also made available at events involving farmer participation, such as the national ploughing championships.

In addition, the Department publishes details of new schemes in the national press and the dedicated farming press by way of press releases and public notices. An indication of the activity of the Department in this area can be seen in that last year the Department issued 263 press releases and 934 public notices.

The Department also operates campaigns and information meetings on issues of interest to the farming community. For example, following the launch of the mid-term review of the Common Agricultural Policy, the Department organised a series of information meetings throughout the country, which were well received and allowed farmers to make an informed decision in regard to the single payment scheme. Last year, the Minister, Deputy Coughlan, had a meeting on REPS 4 in Donegal and I attended one in Cavan. We covered different areas of the country and the meetings were well-attended, useful and informative for farmers.

Advances in information technology have changed the way in which business is carried out by allowing the Department's customers to interact directly with the Department in order to record and view information on-line over the Internet and by using their mobile phones. The Department is at the forefront in deploying the latest information technology and mobile phone services to facilitate its clients and other clients.

One of the major tasks undertaken by the Department in recent years has been the implementation of the single payment scheme. This huge task was successfully implemented when over €1 billion in single payments issued to 118,500 farmers last December, meeting the target we had set ourselves of making the payments on the first possible date. This was a major undertaking and the outcome, after painstaking preparatory work in establishing individual entitlements, was by any standards a major achievement. It was a great credit to all the officials involved in both local offices and the head offices of the Department. Currently, total payments amount to €1.161 billion, involving 99% of farmers who hold entitlements and applied for the single payment scheme.

In recognition of the significant number of queries farmers had on the new single payment scheme, the Minister decided in September 2005 to establish a dedicated call centre in the Portlaoise office of the Department. This centre, which was staffed by 35 officials on a full-time basis, dealt with up to 2,500 calls per day. In addition, certain actions were taken to assist in the information dissemination, such as information meetings for advisers and the use of generic emails for various type of queries, for example, start date, consolidation, etc.

Subsequently, this call centre was replaced by a system of dedicated lo-call numbers, which provides direct access to both the county sections dealing with the processing of individual single payment scheme applications and those sections dealing with the processing of applications under the inheritance, new entrants, consolidation and force majeure measures of the scheme. Currently, calls to these lo-call numbers are in excess of 5,000 per week. It will be appreciated, therefore, that significant staff resources are occupied in dealing with these enquiries.

However, I am determined that the best possible service will be provided to farmers and, in this regard, will continue to review the allocation of resources on an ongoing basis to ensure that this is achieved. I have asked that the telephone systems available to the single payment unit should be reviewed and upgraded. The level of staff resources made available to the single payment unit for the medium term is also being reviewed to ensure it is capable of operating the scheme efficiently and delivering payments within the appropriate timescales.

As I mentioned, where issues arise during processing of single payment scheme application forms which require to be satisfactorily resolved before payment can issue, correspondence is issued to the persons concerned outlining the nature of the given problem. As prompt written replies to these queries allow such cases to be processed speedily to completion I again urge all farmers to reply quickly to any correspondence received from my Department.

The changeover to the single payment scheme has presented significant challenges to the Department and involves change and re-organisation in the unit in Portlaoise, the 28 local offices, the former regional office in Castlebar and the inspection regime. The introduction of the single payment scheme, falling disease levels and efficiency gains means that staff numbers are currently on a downward trend in the Department.

It is anticipated that there will be a reduction in the number of office staff by 400 on 2005 levels, resulting in lower staff numbers in local offices. This process has already commenced and a significant number of staff have already been deployed to other Departments. The Department will manage the reduction and redeployment of staff numbers while maintaining the coherence, efficiency and effectiveness of the Department and continuing to provide quality services to its clients. I thank Senator McHugh for raising this important issue.

Joe McHugh (Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

The last part of the Minister of State's speech has summed up the issue. The concern is that there will be major reductions, which will leave existing staff under severe pressure. The question of whether there will be enough resources to accommodate the existing queries of farmers generally will be highlighted.

Some farmers have compared their farming business to people on the minimum wage. Farmers do not have a minimum wage. A statistic being disseminated now is that a farmer would need to be paid €300 for a ewe in order to make the minimum wage. As it stands this week, a farmer would be lucky to get €40 or €50 for a sheep come next autumn. The farmers have not put themselves in such a position. With more bureaucracy, more information will be required. More resources will be needed for dissemination of this information, including more IT resources. We still need human contact. Farmers cannot be left to deal with computers and recorded voice messages. Human interaction between the farmer and the Department is necessary.

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

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.

Joe McHugh (Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

It is important to keep the resources or they will be taken away.

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

The Senator has nothing to worry about on that score.