Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Wednesday, 4 Nov 1998

Vol. 496 No. 1

Adjournment Debate. - Grant Payments.

Mrs. B. Moynihan-Cronin

I thank the Minister for Health and Children for taking the debate, although I would have preferred the Minister for Agriculture and Food to be here. I am experiencing difficulty in my constituency. My telephone will have to be taken off the hook soon if something is not done about the Area Aid Unit. The number of calls I am getting every day from farmers who want to get through to the Area Aid Unit because of difficulties with digitisation is unprecedented.

Earlier this year the Minister made a decision to the effect that an applicant's area aid form needed to be cleared before any premium, or headage or tillage payment could be made. In the context of the crisis facing farmers, this decision is misguided.

A further decision was made in recent weeks to the effect that the Area Aid Unit in the Department of Agriculture and Food would no longer answer the telephones. This decision was made on the basis that the staff were inundated with queries about area aid, in particular from farmers who were unsuccessful in their applications for headage premia. As a result of the level of telephone calls, staff were unable to process the area aid applications, and a decision was made not to answer the telephones.

Because of this decision, farmers making a call to the Area Aid Unit now end up talking to the answering machine. This is highly unsatisfactory, and the Minister must take action to reverse this unprofessional way of dealing with the farming community. It goes against the rights of farmers as indicated in the charter of rights for farmers.

I have received a plethora of queries from farmers with regard to area aid in recent weeks. I tabled seven or eight Dáil questions today, the replies to which were all the same — they would not be paid their headage premia until such time as their area aid had been sorted out. However, they cannot sort out their area aid because they cannot get through to the Department.

Initially when the farmers submitted their area aid applications, they were advised by the Department of Agriculture and Food that the Department would contact them if there were any difficulties, but it was only on inquiring at the local office why headage payments were late that farmers were told there was a problem with the area aid. The Department did not fulfil its promise by contacting the farmers.

This year has been a dreadful year for farmers. There are only six weeks to Christmas Day and many farmers still have not received their cheques. It seems likely that they will not have them for Christmas. It would take all the staff in the Area Aid Unit just to deal with my constituency. I am asking the Minister for Agriculture and Food, through the Minister here tonight, to put extra staff in the Area Aid Unit for a number of weeks just to clear the backlog.

The Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture and Food will come before our council meeting on Friday night. If the Minister cannot give a satisfactory reply tonight, I hope there will be some good news by the end of the week.

Minister for Health and Children (Mr. Cowen)

I apologise for the absence of the Minister for Agriculture and Food. He asked me to take the debate in respect of the issue raised by Deputy Moynihan-Cronin.

As Deputies may be aware, a major reorganisation of the Area Aid Unit was undertaken earlier this year by the Department of Agriculture and Food and was completed in April. This reorganisation involved a new management structure and the division of the unit into five distinct sections, each with responsibility for a specified group of counties. This action was necessary to eliminate a backlog of 19,700 cases carried over from 1997. It was aimed at putting procedures in place to ensure the delivery of 1998 payments in accordance with the provisions of the EU Integrated Control and Administration system and, especially, full compliance with the requirements of the land parcel identification system. Derogations from the provisions of the land parcel identification system had been obtained in 1996 and, again in 1997, from the EU Commission who had made it clear that a similar derogation would not be granted in respect of 1998 or future years.

Processing of 1998 area aid applications was based on the objective of delivering this year's payments in line with the targets set out in the Charter of Rights for Farmers. The key target dates are: in relation to headage — payments to commence in September and to be completed in all eligible cases by 31 October; in relation to the special beef/suckler cow premia — advance payments of 60 per cent to commence on 1 November with all eligible applicants to be paid by 31 December; in respect of arable aid — payments to commence on 16 October and to be completed in all eligible cases by 31 October; in respect of the ewe premia scheme — payment of each instalment to commence within seven days of formal EU adoption of the necessary regulation and to be completed within one month.

In view of the difficulties for farmers brought about by the combination of poor weather conditions during the summer and the decline in beef prices, it was decided to bring forward the cattle headage date by three weeks, and to get Commission agreement for the earlier payment of special beef and suckler cow premia at a higher rate of 80 per cent.

These actions were vital in enhancing the cash flow position of many farm families. However, they had the effect of greatly reducing the processing time available to the Area Aid Unit to complete its task. The earlier payment of cattle headage in 1998 commenced while the processing of a sizeable number of the 1998 area aid applications were still ongoing and resulted in the Area Aid Unit being inundated with telephone call inquiries from farmers. In the circumstances, a decision was taken, albeit reluctantly, to discontinue receiving phone calls and to concentrate on contacting farmers individually by phone and letter instead to expedite outstanding payments. This process is ongoing and the payment levels achieved are clear evidence of the success of the strategy. The total amount paid to date in 1998 under the headage and premia schemes is some £718 million, of which over £419 million relates to payments under the 1998 schemes. In the past week alone some £34 million has been paid out. When BSE/agrimonetary payments are excluded, the total amount paid under the 1998 schemes to date is £397 million. The corresponding figure paid at this time last year under the 1997 schemes was some £240 million.

This huge increase in the level of payments is due mainly to improvements brought about in the clearance of area aid application processing which must take account of the complex requirements of the land parcel identification system. Without suspending the phone service, it would simply not have been possible to achieve these payment levels. Staff in the area aid unit continue to identify those farmers awaiting payment. The majority have already been communicated with and the area aid unit is writing to the remaining farmers with a view to clearing problems.

As the Minister has previously stated in the House, his Department has placed considerable emphasis on customer services and has made significant improvements to those aspects of its functions. However, a large volume of payments are concentrated in a relatively short period; 340,000 payments have issued since 1 October last. The performance in delivering direct payments this year has been extremely good given the complexities involved and compares more than favourably with the level of service delivered in other member states.

It is the Minister's intention to restore a full telephone service in the area aid unit at the earliest opportunity and his officials are examining the possibility of having an earlier closing date for 1999 area aid applications to maximise the total amount of processing time available.