Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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306. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the detail of the information technology problems being experienced by his Department and for which his Department has indicated to many farmers as the reason GLAS payments have been delayed; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14693/18]

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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In the context of the Rural Development Programme 2014 - 2020 my Department has delivered over twenty new schemes that were supported by IT capability. 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 and draw-down 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.

My Department has an excellent record in the delivery of high quality ICT systems. We have been consistently among the first to make payments in the EU.

Currently 97% of eligible participants have received their 2017 advance payments. My Department will continue to process payments on a weekly basis for any participant that passes validations.