Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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21. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of applications under the areas of natural constraint scheme and the basic payment scheme that have not been paid in 2015; the reason for the delay; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41248/15]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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My Department has received approximately 121,000 applications under the 2015 Basic Payments Scheme (BPS) from applicants who currently hold entitlements. In addition, over 102,350 applications have been received under the Areas of Natural Constraints (ANC ) scheme from applicants with eligible designated lands. Under EU Regulations, all these applications are subject to robust administrative checks prior to payment. The main element of the administrative check is an area assessment. This is achieved by using the Land Parcel Identification System which currently records some 1 million individual land parcels.

The work of my Department 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 until the error concerned is resolved. These errors include over-claims, dual claims and incomplete application forms. In addition, applicants under the ANC scheme must fulfil a 7 month minimum stock retention period and an annual stocking density requirement. My Department enters into correspondence, mainly through the issuing of query letters to farmers, in order to resolve these error cases.

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.

It should be noted that Ireland is among the earliest to pay the BPS /Greening in the European Union and, to date, 114,372, farmers have received payments totalling €725.7 million. In relation to the ANC Scheme, I can confirm that payments commenced, on schedule, on 23 September 2015 and that to date, 83,294 farmers have received payments totalling €177.5 million. There are no advance payments under this scheme and, as previously stated, many farmers cannot be paid until early 2016 when they comply with the stocking requirements of the scheme.

As outstanding cases under the BPS and ANC are processed and are cleared of any outstanding error, they will be sent 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. In addition, balancing payments under the BPS and Greening are scheduled to commence from 1 December.