Tom Fleming (Kerry South, Independent)
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99. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will arrange for all outstanding payments for all applicants under the basic payment scheme to be made at an early date. [38647/15]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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In relation to the Basic Payment Scheme and Greening Payment, I am pleased to confirm that advance payments began issuing in Ireland on 16 October 2015. This is the earliest that payments can commence under the governing EU Regulations. In addition, I can confirm that the level of the advance payment was set at 70% for 2015 rather than the normal 50%. The increase in the advance payment for 2015 is, in particular, due to the difficulties encountered in the dairying and pigmeat sectors. Ireland is among the earliest to pay the BPS in the European Union and, to date, 105,586 farmers have received payments totalling €661.1 million. As outstanding cases are fully processed and are cleared of any outstanding error, they will be processed for payment. My Department is prioritising the processing of all such outstanding cases with regular payment runs continuing over the coming weeks for all fully processed cases. Balancing payments are scheduled to commence from 1 December.