Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 10 December 2015
104. Deputy Denis Naughten asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of farmers awaiting the first instalment of payments and the value of outstanding payments under the basic payment scheme and the areas of natural constraint scheme by county, if a partial payment will be made to all farmers while outstanding issues are being resolved; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44536/15]
Amharc ar fhreagraPayments under the Areas of Natural Constraints Scheme commenced, on schedule, on 23 September, 2015. To date, payments worth €180m have issued over 84,000 applicants. The total number of eligible applicants is 102,555. Many applicants cannot be paid until early next year when they have complied with stocking density and retention terms of the scheme. In relation to the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) and Greening Payment, I am pleased to confirm that advance payments began issuing in Ireland on 16 October 2015. This is the earliest that payments can commence under the governing EU Regulations. In addition, I can confirm that the level of the advance payment was set at 70% for 2015 rather than the normal 50%. The increase in the advance payment for 2015 is, in particular, due to the difficulties encountered in the dairying and pigmeat sectors.
Ireland is among the earliest to pay the BPS in the European Union and to date, of the approximately 122,265 eligible applicants, 11 7,380 farmers have received payments totalling €1.0 25 billion.
It is not permissible under the governing EU legislation to make partial payments in respect of unclear cases. Work is continuing in my Department to prioritise the processing of outstanding cases for payment under both schemes. Regular pay runs are in place to pay applicants as cases are cleared for payment. The further detail requested on a county basis by the Deputy is currently being collated and will be forwarded directly once available.
