Advisers contacted by the Irish Farmers Journal around the country this Friday are reporting frustration at the KT online system, with none having been able to register any information from the farmers they work with.

"We had an email from the Department on Wednesday saying the the system was down and nothing since then," said James Kirwan, beef and sheep facilitator in Birr, Co Offaly. This follows stop-start hiccups on the system for the past week. "I was with a client on Monday and it crashed," Kirwan said.

Instead of meeting farmers and inputting their farm improvement plans and other information there and then, Kirwan said he was currently collecting all the information and would have to go back and upload it when the system is working, causing "a lot of duplication".

We have found ourselves having to spend most of our time at meetings dealing with the paperwork aspect

Ballymurray, Co Roscommon facilitator John Brennan, also working with beef and sheep groups, described the system as "abysmal". "My experience is that you start uploading, then there is a glitch and you lose everything," said Brennan. Instead, he has been focusing on meetings and gathering documents from farmers and will only start entering data when the online system is stable, hopefully ahead of the end of May deadline. With the BPS deadline on Monday and concurrent demand for GLAS, he said that "another week or 10 days would make all the difference," echoing calls by Teagasc and the Agricultural Consultants Association for an extension.

Overall, Brennan is critical of the bureaucratic requirements of the KT scheme. "We have found ourselves having to spend most of our time at meetings dealing with the paperwork aspect and less with the practical aspect," he said.

Pat Burke Farm Advisory services, which facilitates 30 groups across dairy, beef and sheep in Cahir, Co Tipperary, has also been unable to enter any information so far. "It's absolutely diabolical," said one of the firm's advisers. "We can't even log a meeting." She, too, was beginning to wonder if the 31 May deadline could be met.

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