John Brassil (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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426. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if his Department kept applicants fully informed of the issues delaying payment with regard to the more than 200 GLAS 1 payments pending for farmers here that are awaiting payment subject to development of additional IT functionality; when this development of IT functionality will be completed in order to process payments; if these applications will be processed manually in the absence of this IT; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40523/16]

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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Under the EU Regulations governing the Scheme and other area-based payment schemes, a comprehensive administrative check, including cross-checks with the Land Parcel Identification System, have to be completed before any payment can issue.

My Department recognises that some payments for 2015 have yet to be completed but it must also be recognised that in the first year of the GLAS Scheme over 95% of GLAS farmers due a 2015 payment have received up to 85% of this payment.

This has represented a significant commitment in terms of resources, including IT development resources, within the Department and when viewed in the context of the Department also rolling out the new Basic Payment Scheme and a number of other schemes as part of the new Rural Development Programme such as TAMS II, Beef Genomics, Knowledge Transfer Schemes, it represents a significant amount of work.

Officials in my Department are working on all outstanding 2015 part year payments, on a case by case basis with the intention of processing payments which meet all required regulatory requirements as soon as possible.

In addition to processing the remaining 2015 part year payments, officials are also developing the systems to support the third tranche of GLAS and systems to support 2016 GLAS payments for GLAS 1 and GLAS 2, which are the first full year payments under the Scheme.  These 2016 payments will begin issuing before the end of the year for applications which pass all the required regulatory checks.