Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)
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165. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the reasons his Department is informing persons that agri-environment options, AEO, scheme payments will now not go ahead until the end of April in some cases; the reasons for this delay; if he will consider bringing forward the date of payment in cases of genuine hardship; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17256/14]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The checks are well under way for AEOS 3 and I anticipate that payments for AEOS 3 in respect of 2013 will commence shortly.

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. 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.