Michael Colreavy (Sligo-North Leitrim, Sinn Fein)
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353. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he is aware of the delay in processing payments under the agri-environment options scheme to farmers following a penalty review; whether the delays are being attributed to computer overload; and whether departmental staff are unable to confirm the number of weeks or months it will take to process these payments. [18391/15]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Where penalties have been imposed under AEOS, these must be deducted and recorded by way of dedicated IT functionality, to ensure full compatibility with all EU regulations and to provide an enhanced audit-trail.  The additional IT development work has now been completed and has been successfully tested. Processing of all remaining payments will now commence later this week.