Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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624. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the amount of investment that was made in computer IT software to facilitate the GLAS scheme and its payments; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3794/17]

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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In the context of the Rural Development Programme (RDP) 2015 - 2020 the Department has delivered over twenty new schemes that were supported by  IT capability in  the last two years.  In the first two years of the current RDP my Department has already implemented substantially more RDP schemes than were implemented over the entire ten year lifetime of the previous RDP programme. This rate of delivery would not have been possible without the availability of high quality complex IT software systems to support the business units in operating these schemes. Since 2014 my Department has adopted a policy of implementing fully digital end-to-end support for all but the smallest of schemes.

The Department is delivering the vast majority of these schemes by enhancing the capability of its Generic Claims Processing System (GCPS) with support from its Geospatial Information System (GIS), Land Parcel Information System (LPIS) and Agriculture Field Inspection and Testing System (AFIT). This approach has been very successful in delivering schemes and was particularly effective in the implementation of the application submission process for GLAS where the Department used available datasets to identify the appropriate actions to be carried out on holdings.  

The GCPS system currently supports the various GLAS, TAMS II, Knowledge Transfer and Organic Farming Schemes in addition to the AEOS and TAMS I schemes under the previous Rural Development Plan. 

My Department has an excellent record in the delivery of high quality IT systems.  In that respect my Department is ahead of the rest of our European partners.

In the period from 2014 to date a total of €7,540,383.30 has been spent in the development, maintenance and enhancement of the GCPS software. A specific figure is not assigned to any one particular scheme, which the software supports, as much of the functionality operates across schemes. Specific costs can however be associated with GLAS for the work carried out on GIS and AFIT.  Details of expenditure (including VAT) by year in the period 2014-2016 is detailed in the table 1 below.

Table 1 – Breakdown of expenditure on the GLAS Schemes