Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)
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194. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will provide a breakdown per county of the total number of farmers that are awaiting payments under the agri environment option scheme; the reasons for the delay in administering payments; the expected date that the payments will issue; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19684/13]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Under the EU Regulations governing the scheme and other 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.

Outstanding payments under both AEOS I and AEOS II are largely due to unresolved queries associated with applications and in most instances officials in my Department will have contacted the applicants concerned with the intention of issuing payment as soon as possible. There is a specific issue delaying payments under AEOS 2 related to non productive capital investments. In order to facilitate the 2012 payment applicants must have submitted a valid claim form, if they have selected a non-productive capital investment action. However a significant number of applicants have either not submitted a claim form or have outstanding queries associated with submitted forms. Officials in my Department have been in contact with all these farmers and are dealing with the responses received with the intention of clearing any backlog as soon as possible.

The information requested is not readily available but will be collated and forwarded directly to the Deputy. I am also 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.