Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 26 October 2016
146. Deputy Jackie Cahill asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will address the late payments to farmers caused by administration problems and delayed processing of satellite inspections; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32211/16]
View answerEU regulations governing the administration of the Basic Payment Scheme and other area-based schemes require that full and comprehensive administrative checks, including Ground or Remote Sensing (Satellite) inspections where applicable, are fully completed before any payments are issued. This is to ensure that payments do not issue on ineligible areas/features, that only eligible applicants are paid and to avoid an applicant receiving an undue payment that would have to be recovered by my Department.
For those cases subject to administrative checks which have not passed the validation process, my Department enters into correspondence mainly through the issuing of query letters to applicants, in order to resolve these error cases.
In the case of Remote Sensing (Satellite) inspections, a comprehensive review of the satellite imagery received must be undertaken to ensure that the actual claimed area in the application form corresponds to the area farmed by the applicant, that the crop types are as claimed and that ineligible land or features are not included for payment purposes. The governing regulations prescribe that where it is not possible to make an accurate determination on the eligibility of a parcel or parcels of land by means of an assessment of the available imagery, a field visit must be undertaken to verify the position on the ground.
To date payments in excess of €735m have issued to approximately 113,000 applicants under the 2016 Basic Payments Scheme. In addition payments in excess of €179m have issued to some 83,500 applicants under the 2016 Areas of Natural Constraints.
Of the 6,500 cases selected for a Remote Sensing (Satellite) inspection across the various area-based schemes, payment of the 1st instalment of the Basic Payment Scheme has issued to 3,447 applicants to date. Payments under Areas of Natural Constraints Scheme have issued to 2,659 applicants to date.
Priority is being given to the processing of all outstanding cases subject to administrative checks or inspection and cases continue to be finalised to payment stage on a daily basis. Regular payment runs are being made for both the BPS & ANC Schemes to ensure prompt payment of fully processed cases.
