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Speaking at the Oireachtas Agriculture Committee on Tuesday, Minister Creed addressed the issue of unpaid GLAS farmers.
“There are 2,900 farmers left to be paid (in GLAS); 1,600 of these are due to participants having to resolve issues such as BPS errors needing clarification,” he said.
“We are dealing with the final core of the scheme; the last few throw up difficult circumstances. It is highly likely that we will see a number of applications where the applicant is no longer actively involved in the scheme and has walked away.”
This still leaves 1,300 applicants who are eligible for payments who have not yet received anything, amounting to over €4.5m.
Minister Creed has said that these are issues that the Department is working through; what exactly these issues are continues to remain unclear.
When asked by committee chair Pat Deering TD if there was an IT issue holding up payments, Minister Creed simply answered “no”.
“Each individual case puts up a range of different issues; one might be mapping issues, one might be actions on individual plots,” he said.
Mapping issues have been raised by farmers and planners on multiple occasions, but the Department has not provided clarification on the mapping issues. While the majority of farmers are now looking forward to balancing payments in May, others are still waiting for their advance payment, four months after they were due to issue.
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