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“I apologise to farmers who are caught up in the delays. We are working flat-out to get them paid,” said Minister Creed, when asked why 8,000 farmers are still waiting for GLAS payments some four and half months after they were expected.
“I am acutely conscious that we are some way behind our own ambition and commitment under the Farmers Charter to pay farmers. That disappoints me but I appreciate that, as a farmer, it’s not what you want to hear. You want to know when you are going to be paid.
“We pressed the pay button on Christmas week and 28,000 payments went out; €97m went out. Since then we’ve cleared an additional €8m and we’re at 30,000 of the 38,000 farmers.”
Why didn’t everyone get paid?
“That’s what we’re working through to find out. In December, when we hit pay, we hit pay for everyone. But it’s a complex scheme and in each application there are 30 individual options.
“Your application has to correlate with your Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) applications and the plots therein, the actions on each plot. Without being an IT expert, you can grasp the complexity of the processing of these applications and the crosschecks required.
“We have to find out now – by eyeballing each application – why they didn’t go through, and resolve the issues with it. Very often, more often than not, they are in-house issues. I’ve been upstairs in the IT section and the staff are working flat-out to get payments out. The same is happening in Johnstown Castle. I apologise to farmers caught up in the delays. We are working flat-out to get them paid.”
When will the 8,000 farmers be paid?
“I can’t say when all farmers will be paid specifically at this stage – but it’s not a resource issue, neither an admin nor an IT resource issue. It’s just a logistical issue of having to eyeball each individual application and deal with the issues that arise in each one.
“There is a mammoth undertaking here in terms of IT systems for payment and – while it’s cold comfort to farmers waiting for payments – if you ask the European Commission, we are way ahead of any of the 28 member states in terms of drawdown of funding under the Rural Development Programme.”
What about communicating with farmers?
“I know farmers are frustrated now by the phone system but, while I appreciate it may not be the message that farmers want to hear, I have said to staff to put the head down and concentrate on clearing payments. Answering the phone is taking the same staff away from actually processing payments.
“I would say to farmers: ‘Bear with me if the telephones are not as they should be. We are prioritising getting everyone involved in the effort to pay.’”
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Are staff being pulled from other areas to deal with GLAS?
“There is no pulling of staff from other areas. Staff in this area have all the overtime they want. There isn’t a resource issue here.”
Could it not have been better planned?
“Until you press a pay button for a payment run – and we couldn’t until we had all our systems in place – all the applications loaded and we were ready. Then the issues emerged.”
In respect of other systems we’re rolling out now, for instance the sheep scheme, will we have the same issues?
“I hope not, I hope we will learn from this experience. But when you roll out schemes as we do – such as the locally-led schemes for pearl mussel and hen harrier – they all bring their own set of IT challenges.
“I’m not an IT expert, I might as well be looking into the boot of the car but I’ve visited the sixth floor here and the staff are working assiduously. They are acutely conscious of the work they’re doing and how important it is to farmers awaiting payment.”
What about the farmers forced to sell silage to scrape by?
“I appreciate that cashflow management is a big issue and these payments are important in that regard. To those farmers, I would say we are working night and day.
“We have no vested interest whatsoever in holding on to farmers’ money. We are working all the hours God gives us to try and resolve the issues. We have over €105m and just under 30,000 farmers paid now.”
We’re working through all these cases as quickly as we can
When is the next payment run?
“We are making payment runs every week, so there will be a payment run each week until we clear this. I don’t want to make a bad situation worse by saying to someone you’ll have it by the end of next week or two weeks’ time. We’re working through all these cases as quickly as we can.”
Could it go on for months yet?
“No, I don’t think that’s conceivable. Weeks.”
No guidance for farmers in terms of number of weeks?
“No, it would be irresponsible of me. You mentioned people with cashflow difficulties, and if I said it will be there in three weeks’ time, and someone finds that arrangements they made can’t be stood over because of that ... all I can assure farmers is that I’m doing everything possible to get payments out as fast as possible.”
Have you approached the EU commission about making payment now and clawing back on the remaining 15%?
“No, it’s not feasible. I think we have to move away from the politics of the EU being the bogeyman. This is an issue that rests in-house. I’m not going to get into the space of saying I would have paid, only the EU wouldn’t let me. That harvest was reaped in the UK, in terms of people who constantly blamed the EU for everything. Then you had a Brexit referendum and the mess we’re in as a consequence.
“We’re obliged to be able to stand over each payment in terms of audit, and until we go through each case we can’t do that. But this isn’t a case of ‘the EU won’t let me’ – this is an in-house issue we are working to resolve.”
Could this problem recur with GLAS or other schemes?
“Last year, there were significant issues with the BPS. The BPS was a new system and in the first year of its introduction payments were extremely slow and complicated. This year, virtually no one complained; it was moved out seamlessly.
“This is the first big tranche of this GLAS payment and – with the best will in the world – issues arise in any payment system and we’re working through that.
“I would imagine that for this 38,000 cohort, once it’s resolved, the next round of payments should not pose any difficulty.”
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