Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 6 November 2012
137. Deputy Michael Moynihan asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the percentage of 2012 payments his Department expect to have paid by the 31 December 2012 under each of the following schemes, agri environment option scheme 1 and 2, REP scheme, disadvantaged area scheme and the single payment; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [48250/12]
View answerAs regards the Single Payment Scheme, advance payments of 50% started issuing on cases cleared for payment, as scheduled, on 16 October. Since that date about 115,000 applicants have been paid some €579M. Advance payments will continue to be made on clear cases, twice weekly, on an on-going basis. The balancing payments will commence as provided for under EU legislation from 1st December.
The number of farmers not cleared for payment of the advance of the Single Farm Payment on 5th November is 7,665 or 6.24% of applicants. My Department will continue to clear the maximum possible number of these cases for payment by the 31st December. However, due to the number of variables involved, it is not possible, at this stage, to indicate what the year-end outturn will be.
Payments under the 2012 Disadvantaged Areas Scheme commenced, on schedule, on 26 September and, to date, payments worth some €185,864,741 have issued to 83,921 applicants. Given the changes to the Terms and Conditions governing the 2012 Scheme, prompted by the need to achieve the savings necessitated due to budgetary restrictions, it is difficult to project the level of spend that will be achieved by year-end. That said, however, every effort is being made to maximise the expenditure under the Scheme in the current calendar year. To this end payments are continuing to issue twice weekly, as individual cases are confirmed eligible for payment.
As regards the agri-environmental schemes of REPS and AEOS, under the governing EU Regulations, comprehensive administrative checks, including cross-checks with the Land Parcel Identification System, as well as field inspections must be completed before payments can issue. Actual expenditure in any one year will depend on the completion of this process and on the and level of query resolution on individual claims.
I expect that 2012 payments of REPS 4 and of both AEOS 1 and 2 to commence shortly and my and my objective is to ensure that as many REPS and AEOS participant as possible are paid by year end.
