Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry South, Independent)
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183. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will grant all outstanding 2012 direct payments to farmers as a matter of urgency (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19568/13]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Under the EU Regulations governing all area-based payment schemes, a comprehensive administrative check of all applications, including cross-checks with the Land Parcel Identification System, must be completed before any payment can issue.

Successive EU audits have made it absolutely clear that compliance with the Regulations must be strictly adhered to and that all administrative checks must be passed and eligibility conditions met before payment issues. As a result, my Department is obliged to ensure that individual payments will not issue until all aspects of a farmer’s application are in order, all outstanding documentation provided and all queries resolved. In most instances where payments are outstanding there remains an outstanding query on the application. These queries are being resolved on an ongoing basis and officials in my Department will have contacted the applicants concerned with the intention of issuing payment as soon as possible. I am of course conscious of the difficulties facing the farming community at present and this is why I am prioritising outstanding payments, including AEOS and DAS, and ensuring that they issue as soon as possible.

I am conscious that farmers are experiencing difficulties given the current fodder shortage. Payments are being processed as promptly as possible. €2.5 million will be paid out in payments over the coming weeks.