Brendan Griffin (Kerry, Fine Gael)
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507. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine when his Department will have its information technology systems upgraded to process the GLAS applications that were refused in error; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5458/17]

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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In the context of the Rural Development Programme 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 programme 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.

In relation to the GLAS scheme, a number of instances have been brought to the Department’s attention where applicants could not apply for particular GLAS actions. Separately there are a number of applications where actions were refused by the Department and this decision was subsequently successfully appealed by the applicant. The matter of addressing these applications is now being considered in the context of the overall work plan for the year.

The primary objective at present is to ensure that all outstanding GLAS payments are issued without delay and the effort of my Department is focused on this in the first instance. In this regard, to date, 2016 payments totalling just under €103m have issued to just under 29,000 farmers.  Weekly payment runs going forward will clear further cases on an ongoing basis.