Vol. 517 No. 3
59 Mr. Ring asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Rural Development the plans, if any, he has to upgrade the administration of hardship grants to restricted herd owners from a manual payment process to a computerised process in order to expedite the issue of payments. [9612/00]
My Department is in the process of developing a new integrated and comprehensive animal health computer system, AHCS. This new system will include the computerisation of TB and Brucellosis compensation arrangements including the hardship grant scheme.
The proposed implementation date for the first phase of the animal health computer system is early 2001. It is anticipated that computerisation will lead to increased efficiency with regard to the payment of compensation to herdowners.
