Payment under the National Reserve and Young Farmers Scheme is due to issue within the next week, according to Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed.

The minister made the announcement in response to a parliamentary question from Joe Carey of Fine Gael.

The Department has received just over 7,000 applications under the 2015 National Reserve and almost 9,000 applications under the 2015 Young Farmers Scheme.

To date some 6,900 applications under the National Reserve and some 8,800 applications under the Young Farmers Scheme have been fully processed, meaning 100 farmers' applications have yet to be processed under the National Reserve while 200 have yet to be processed under the Young Farmers Scheme.

Minister Creed said that in the case of outstanding applications, issues pertaining to registration of herd numbers, entitlement registration and agricultural educational qualifications need to be verified for applicants.

"My Department is engaged in ongoing correspondence with applicants requesting additional documentation where this is required to facilitate final processing of their applications," he said. "A number of applicants have yet to respond and these cases cannot be fully processed until replies are received. Once the relevant documents have been received the outstanding applications will be finalised, with a view to payment issuing as soon as possible thereafter."

The minister added that details on the number of successful applicants under the National Reserve and the Young Farmers Scheme and the level of funds paid will be available once all remaining cases are finalised. This includes cases where appeals have been received from applicants who were notified that their applications were unsuccessful and who have availed of the right to appeal this decision.