I assure the Deputy that this will be an open and transparent operation. The objective of the Department is to ensure that every person receives fair play. Like the Deputy, Members also meet varying cases at their weekly clinics and we are aware of the issue. The Minister has decided that an independent appeals committee will be established to process in a fair, comprehensive and efficient manner appeals on all aspects of the single payment regime.
A committee to be known as the single payment appeals committee will be established. This is a separate committee and will comprise four appeals officers attached to the agricultural office in Portlaoise and an independent chairperson. The committee will meet in Portlaoise initially. It is proposed that the committee should meet for one day a week commencing in mid-March, but this will be subject to review and it may have to expand during the summer due to the number of appeals that have been received by the Department.
At the outset, the appeals committee will examine cases of farmers whose applications for force majeure were unsuccessful. It will take into consideration the situation of farmers depending on the number of animals, area applied for during the reference period, or other circumstances such as bad health, illness or animal disease. The Department has already received more than 14,000 applications and the Deputy can appreciate the difficulty in processing all those. It is hoped that the initial decisions will be made in early March. I assure the Deputy that each individual applicant will receive the fullest consideration. I remind the Deputy that, whatever decisions might be made in that regard, there will be an adjustment under the €1.3 billion national package.