asked the Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries the number of farmers in County Galway who have applied for headage payments under the disadvantaged areas scheme; the total number of animals involved; and the number of grants paid.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Cattle Headage Payments.
17.
4,935 eligible applications were received from County Galway. To date grants amounting to £380,551 have been paid to 2,807 herd owners.
Details are not available of the total number of animals involved as statistics are kept on the basis of livestock units and not of animals.
Will the Minister explain why there are such irregularities in the manner in which payments are made to farmers? In a situation where five herds are inspected, one farmer gets paid but the other four are left out for some reason. There have been many cases where people have made representations to us on this matter.
That is quite true, as I know from the volume of correspondence I am getting. I am not a bit happy that payments are not being made more rapidly. The explanation I have is that this is a temporary scheme, it takes a few months and it is done by temporary staff. When temporary people are employed it takes some time to train them and they may not be as fast at the job as they would be if it were a permanent scheme. I am putting on all the pressure I can to get payments made as quickly as possible.
Will the Minister not agree that there is considerable confusion about this matter? Many people whose herds were the first to be inspected have not been paid whereas other herd owners whose animals were inspected at a later date have received payments. Can the Minister give us some information on this matter?
I understand it is on a county-by-county basis. Probably when the investigations are made they lump together all the applications and deal with them at random and there is no way of following up exactly applications as they come in.
Does the Minister mean that such procedures are followed within a county?
I am talking about applications within a county.
I am calling Question No. 18.