A public consultation on a new review of decisions process for area-based schemes should be published before the end of May, a DAERA spokesperson has confirmed.

A new process is being put in place after Agriculture Minister Edwin Poots told officials that the views of the independent panel at stage 2 of the appeals process should be final.

Under current arrangements, DAERA officials can chose to ignore the recommendations made by this panel.

“It is important to give all stakeholders the opportunity to submit their views on the proposed changes to the review of decision process. A consultation document is currently being prepared,” said the DAERA spokesperson.

As highlighted in last week’s edition, there are 114 cases since 2005 where the Department has not accepted the recommendations made by the independent panel.

Combined, these cases are estimated to involve total claims of around £2.4m. The spokesperson clarified that the £2.4m is an estimate “based on an analysis of a small sample of cases”.

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