he disclosure by the Minister for Agriculture that over 7,000 farmers are still awaiting payments of €40m from the Department of Agriculture is “placing undue financial hardship on families”, according to TD Denis Naughten

“Famers are forced to carry the cost of delayed payments, many of whom require payments to meet loans & other bills,” stated Denis Naughten.

 “While many of these hold ups are due to relatively minor ‘mapping issues’, the delay will cause severe financial hardship for many farm families on the eve of Christmas”.

 “In such cases, an interim payment should be issued to farmers, which will at least help tied them over the difficult Christmas period” concluded Denis Naughten.

Editor’s note: see Dáil reply

Parliamentary Question No. 201  
  
To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of farmers on a country basis awaiting the first instalment of their single farm payments and disadvantaged areas payments respectively; the corresponding value of payments outstanding; if he will ensure that a partial payment is made to all farmers while outstanding issues are being resolved; the corresponding number awaiting the final instalment; and if he will make a statement on the matter. 

  
For WRITTEN answer on Thursday, 18th December, 2014 
  
Ref No: 48843/14 
  
 

The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine: (Simon Coveney) 

Only valid applications under the Single Payment Scheme that fully comply with the requirements of the EU Legislation are paid. Consequently all applications under the Scheme are subject to administrative checks. Over 98% of applicants have passed these checks and have been paid under the Single Payment Scheme. 
  
The remaining applications did not pass the validation process, went into error and cannot be paid pending a resolution of the error or the completion of the land eligibility inspection concerned. These errors include over-claims, dual claims and incomplete application forms. My Department is in correspondence with the farmers concerned in order to resolve these error cases. 
  
The processing of the remaining unclear cases remains a priority with twice weekly payment runs being made to pay on applications as they are cleared for payment. 
The payment details requested are as follows for the Single Payment Scheme: 
 

  
  
It is not possible to estimate the amount of money due to those awaiting payment. The average advance payment has been €4,800 and the overall average payment has been €9,600. 
  
  
  
  
The payment details requested are as follows for the Disadvantaged Areas Scheme: 
 

  
It is not possible to estimate the amount of money due to those awaiting payment. The average Disadvantaged Areas Scheme payment has been €2,100. Payment will not issue to all of the cases above, as certain holdings will not satisfy the retention rates for the scheme as set out in the terms and conditions that govern the scheme.