Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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Question 681: To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food when a person (details supplied) in County Cork will be awarded their REP scheme four grant; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12395/10]

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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Due to industrial action by staff in my Department, I am not in a position to provide a reply to this question.

Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Question 682: To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food when the 25% payment will issue to REP scheme four participants; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12459/10]

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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Out of 28,842 farmers due payments in REPS 4, 19,951 had been paid in full, including the 25% second instalment payment, as of 22 March 2010.

To meet the requirements of EU regulations, applications for REPS payments have to go through an exhaustive series of administrative checks before payment can be released. In a significant number of cases, those checks raised issues and queries which required further detailed examination. Department staff are working to resolve these as quickly as possible. Many of these cases will, however, require the applicants' planners to amend the farm plans that were submitted originally. The persons concerned have been made aware of the position and the applications will be further processed without delay on receipt of amended plans.

In a small number of local offices, the processing of payments has been delayed by staffing issues arising from the moratorium on recruitment and promotions in the public service and the Department is attempting to resolve these difficulties. My objective is to ensure that all outstanding claims are processed to payment stage as quickly as possible.