Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine is the body with responsibility for administering direct payments to farmers via a number of different area based schemes, such as the Basic Payment Scheme.  Arising from this, the Department maintains the Land Parcel Identification System (LPIS) which fulfils two primary functions:

- the identification and positioning of agricultural and forestry parcels, and

- the determination of the eligible area of land parcels

Some of this LPIS work is contracted out to an external company but the Department remains responsible for the maintenance of the LPIS.  On this basis, there is no plans to establish a communication channel between agricultural planners and advisors and the company that carries out the maintenance and updating of the LPIS.

With a view to resolving issues that may arise in processing applications received by the Department as quickly as possible, my Department does maintain a number of avenues for communication with agricultural planners and agents, as well as the applicants themselves.

For example, the Department maintains a dedicated advisor e-mail service, which has received very positive feedback from advisors as well as telephone helpdesks and an on-line response facility for queries.

My Department is continuously reviewing these communications channels with a view to making ongoing improvements to the service that it provides.