John Ellis
Ceist:141 Mr. Ellis asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Forestry if he will have arrangements made for payment of a farm grant to a person (details supplied).
Written Answers. - Grant Payment.
Clerical staff have been temporarily withdrawn from a number of Farm Development Service Offices including Cavan and transferred to livestock schemes to assist with the significant additional work arising from the increased payments to be made under the Common Agricultural Policy reform measures. This is causing some delays on other work but is a temporary measure only and is essential if the new arrangements are to be put in place for this year's schemes.
The payment referred to by the Deputy will be dealt with at the earliest opportunity when the staff are assigned back to their normal duties. The extra money provided in the budget to augment resources available to this Department to deal, inter alia, with the operation of the new schemes should ensure that the position on the other schemes gets back to normal at an early date.