Written answers

Thursday, 18 December 2008

Department of Agriculture and Food

Grant Payments

5:00 pm

Photo of Michael RingMichael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Question 328: To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food when a person (details supplied) in County Mayo will receive their REP scheme four payment. [47500/08]

Photo of Brendan SmithBrendan 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. This is why it has not yet been possible to release payments even to farmers who applied for REPS 4 some time before the closing date of 15 May.

Most REPS plans are now prepared using eREPS, the electronic planning system approved and funded by my Department. As the information in these plans is in computerised format, the administrative checks can be carried out quickly. However a substantial minority of plans submitted this year were not prepared using eREPS. Administrative checks on these have to be done manually and are extremely time-consuming. An effect of recent industrial action in my Department's local offices was that this process was delayed. While normal working has resumed in the local offices following the intervention of the Labour Relations Commission, there is still much to be done before the administrative checks are completed. In these circumstances my 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 were not prepared to allow this. As a result, it is now apparent that REPS 4 payments cannot issue before the end of 2008.

While I am anxious that the REPS 4 payments should go out as soon as possible, and my Department will make every effort to facilitate this, there are of course still over 48,000 farmers in REPS 3 and just under 16,000 of those have anniversary dates on 1 November and 1 December this year. Staff in my Department's local offices are currently engaged in processing the annual payment applications for these farmers, and I have asked them to make every effort to issue as many payments as possible before Christmas.

I have asked senior management in my Department to give me regular updates on the payment situation.

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