Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The relevant EU legislative provisions providing for this direct aid payment came into force in the last number of weeks and provide that Member States have the flexibility to distribute this aid through the most effective channels at their disposal. It is a clear requirement of the provisions regarding this aid that the funds need to be distributed on the basis of objective and non-discriminatory criteria and also needs to ensure that farmers in the relevant sectors are the ultimate beneficiaries of the targeted aid.

I have discussed these matters with representatives of the dairy sector, most recently at the dairy forum on 29^thSeptember. I took the opportunity to update stakeholders regarding progress to date and to seek their opinions regarding how best to distribute this aid. Any decision on distribution obviously had to await the adoption at EU level of the relevant legislative provisions.

In addition my Department have also had discussions with representatives of the Irish pig sector. I am currently considering various options and intend to announce final decisions regarding the aid levels and mechanisms in the very near future.

Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry South, Independent)
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110. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine his plans to review the way farm payments are dealt with (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39877/15]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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This year, my Department receives over 135,000 applications from farmers under the Direct Aid Schemes, which are funded or partially funded by the EU. The Schemes involved include the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) and the Areas of Natural Constraints (ANC) Scheme.

  Under EU Regulations, all applications must be subjected to robust administrative checks prior to payment. The main element of the administrative check is an area assessment. This is achieved by using the detailed database of individual land parcels.  This is known as the Land Parcel Identification System (LPIS) which currently records, electronically, some 1 million individual land parcels and which is required to be kept fully updated.

The Department’s systems in this critical area must meet demanding EU and national audit requirements. Only valid applications under the BPS and ANC that fully comply with the requirements of the EU legislation are paid. Consequently, all applications under the Schemes are subject to administrative checks. Cases that do not pass the validation process go into error and cannot be paid pending a resolution of the error concerned. These errors include over-claims, dual claims and incomplete application forms. In addition, applicants under the ANC scheme must fulfil stocking density and retention requirements. My Department enters into correspondence, mainly through the issuing of query letters to farmers, in order to resolve these error cases.

My Department has received approximately 120,000 applications under the BPS from applicants who currently hold entitlements and 102,000 applications from those eligible under the ANC scheme.

In relation to the BPS 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.

Despite the extension of the closing date for the receipt of applications by two weeks, with a consequent reduction of the processing time available, Ireland is among the earliest to pay the BPS in the European Union and, to date, 107,875, farmers have received payments totalling €680.1 million.

In relation to the ANC Scheme, I can confirm that payments commenced, on schedule, on 23 September 2015 and that to date, 82,242 farmers have received payments totalling €175 million.  There are no advance payments under this scheme.

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 under the BPS are scheduled to commence from 1 December.