Vol. 512 No. 5
12 Mr. D. Moynihan asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Rural Development the progress, if any, made in drawing up a framework for a comprehensive performance measurement system on the administration of the premium and headage payments system as recommended by a recent report of the Comptroller and Auditor General; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26337/99]
To date this year £669 million has been paid to farmers under the various EU headage and premium schemes, of which more than £416 million relates to payments made under the 1999 schemes. So far, an average of 92% of applicants have been paid across all schemes where payments have commenced.
Payments under all the schemes are in line with the performance targets set out in the Charter of Rights for Farmers. Ireland's performance in delivering the direct payment schemes is among the best in the EU and compares favourably with that of other member states. For most schemes Ireland is rated between one and five among the 15 member states in terms of early payment in the 1997-98 scheme year. Ireland was first in the arable and ewe premium schemes, third in the suckler cow scheme and fifth in the special beef premium scheme.
I am satisfied that considerable progress has been made in keeping documentation as simple as possible for these schemes. Application forms and help sheets have been simplified each year in consultation with the farming bodies. In an oral presentation to an all party Oireachtas committee on the strategic management initiative earlier this year, the European Commission indicated that the forms used in Ireland were easier to understand than those used by other member states.
According to the CSO's figures, direct payments to farmers constituted 56% of farmers' income in 1998 and this proportion is set to increase in the coming years following the successful outcome of the Agenda 2000 negotiations. It is my objective that the improvements in delivery of these payments which have been achieved in recent years will be built on and that the ser vice provided by my Department to farmers will be efficient, fair, friendly and transparent.
Since the middle of this year, the Department has been conducting a major review of its IT strategy. This has been done in association with external consultants and I expect to receive the final report soon. The final report will include recommendations for the development of management information systems requirements at a number of levels. These will satisfy most of the operational needs of the individual management units, will allow senior management to develop cross functional views of the organisation's activities and will provide for a greater degree of trend analysis and research capabilities and more sophisticated analysis of data.
I thank the Minister for that answer. I ask him to simplify the application forms which are very complicated and only minimal changes are made to them each year. There should be an appeals administrator for each county.
We are trying to be as helpful as possible. There are two difficulties. There is pressure from farmers, farmers' bodies, TDs and party spokespeople to make the payments as quickly as possible, particularly in the run-up to Christmas. There are, however, procedures involving EU auditors, auditors from the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General and the Committee of Public Accounts. They are all shouting about the disallowance of 0.01% and what we are doing about that. We must be accountable but at the same time we must be swift in processing and delivering. Because direct payments make up such a high percentage of farmers' incomes, the major challenge which faces any Minister for Agriculture, Food and Rural Development is the delivery of an efficient, friendly and fair system.
I wish to take this opportunity to wish the Minister, his officials and the staff in his Department a very happy Christmas.
I will convey that to the staff in the Department, Deputy. That is very decent.
