Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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24. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of farmers that have not yet been paid their 2011 and 2012 agri-environment options scheme 1 and AEOS 2 payments; the percentage in each case, broken down on a county basis; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21475/13]

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 payment information requested by the Deputy is provided below in tabular form.