Paul McGrath (Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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Question 67: To ask the Minister for Agriculture and Food when all farmers will be issued with their single farm payment; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [12030/06]

Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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Question 83: To ask the Minister for Agriculture and Food the number of farmers awaiting payment under the single farm payment; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [12022/06]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 67 and 83 together.

One of my main objectives since assuming office as Minister for Agriculture and Food was to ensure the efficient implementation of the decoupled single payment scheme — the most significant change to agricultural support since our accession to the European Community.

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.

Under EU legislation, member states may commence payment under the single payment scheme on 1 December of the year of application, with payments being fully processed by the following 30 June. My priority in 2005, the first year of this new scheme, was to maximize the number of payments to eligible applicants by the earliest date possible of 1 December and I am satisfied that this was achieved. Since then, it has been my absolute priority to ensure that the issues that are holding up the remaining cases are resolved with the applicants concerned and that payments are made without undue delay. To this end, I have arranged that payments issue on a very regular basis, as soon as the problems with the outstanding cases are resolved.

In common with the coupled schemes, which the single payment scheme replaced, delays in processing can be caused by many factors, including incomplete application forms, errors on applications and discrepancies highlighted following computer validation, which must be resolved via correspondence with the applicant. In many cases, payment could not be made because applicants did not submit an application to transfer the single payment entitlements, with lands, by way of inheritance, gift, lease or purchase. Many of these applications were only received after my Department made direct contact with the farmers in question, during recent weeks, and some have yet to be submitted.

The ongoing objective of my Department is to make payments to all of those farmers who have yet to receive their payment or are entitled to a supplementary payment, as soon as their cases are cleared for payment. Every effort is being made by my Department to resolve the outstanding cases but many of these are extremely complex and, in other cases, my Department is still awaiting documentation before payment can be made. A number of payment runs continue to be made each week as the more complicated files are cleared.

I should add that the changeover to the single payment was undertaken while work continued on winding up the coupled schemes. The successful introduction of the single payment scheme in Ireland in 2005 is testimony to the efforts of all concerned. It is my intention that this success will be built on into the future.

At present, total payments amount to €1,140 million involving 98% of farmers who hold entitlements and applied for the single payment scheme. In excess of 2,000 SPS applications are still awaiting clearance for payment. Payments are continuing to issue to farmers as their applications are processed to completion, in accordance with the EU legislation governing the single payment scheme.