The programme for Government commits to "review the Agriculture Appeals Act 2001 to ensure the independence and efficiency of the office in dealing with appeals from farmers". I know of a farmer in County Tipperary who is waiting for €12,500 so he can pay his bills. This money will be a lifeline to him. He had a penalty of €2,000 because he was ill, which was unfortunate enough. He accepts that, but he is still waiting for the other €10,500. Small farmers are not in a position to have the State owing them money. They have bills to pay to contractors and co-ops. They owe people rent and everything else. They like to pay their bills and they do so. This is totally unfair. We have been told that there are computer glitches and backlogs. It is just not acceptable that farmers are being treated like this. It would not happen to a State organisation.

If it was the other way around and the Revenue Commissioners were owed the money, considerable interest and penalties would be applied. It is not acceptable that this is continuing to happen. A commitment was given in the programme for Government that this would be reviewed.

Deputies Breathnach and Aindrias Moynihan wish to comment on the same matter, and I ask them to be brief.

With respect to payments due to the agricultural sector, it is totally unacceptable that where some slight misinformation appears on a application for a farm payment the computers in the Department spit out the form into a corner, such files are being left there and nobody is handling them on a manual basis. I have been informed by senior officials in the Department that this is what is happening. It is unacceptable that is happening where a small error exists. I will give brief example of a case. A person got a €50 reduction when they were paying their bill and because that discrepancy of €50 arose with respect to their €50,000 cheque, their file is not being dealt with. That is one of numerous examples of cases across the country.

Thank you, Deputy.

We have a Charter for the Rights for Farmers and it is unfair that the grants that people are due are going towards paying bank interest. That is unacceptable and we need to get to the bottom of it.

There is a commitment in the programme for Government to review the appeals mechanism and a scoping exercise was conducted prior to last Christmas but the review does not seems to have progressed from that point. This is very important for people who are caught up in this system. A number of examples have been given and I will cite the example of a case in my area where a farmer who had one digit wrong in the nine-digit parcel number has his 2014 payment held up until this February. That is ridiculous. It is pure black magic with respect to the way that an applicant puts in their details and it takes such a long time to find out if anything is going to come through the appeals system. More information needs to be given to farmers and there also needs to be a follow through on the commitment to improve the appeals process.

Deputy Danny Healy Rae also wishes to comment on the same matter.

Many farmers are being blackguarded when it comes to the current system. We asked the Government to review it. Where farmers' payments are being held up due to small misdemeanours, why can they not be paid 75% of what they are owed and the matter at issue dealt with after that? That is what we are asking to be done. These people have to live, they have to put food on the table and they have to send their children, and they are entitled to their payments. The Department is holding up everything. That is very wrong.

Thank you, Deputy.

It was promised that the appeals system would be reviewed and that something would be done about it but nothing has been done.

I accept that everybody who is due a payment or grant should be able to receive it on time. This, however, is not a legislative question. I am sure that a written Dáil question giving the details would result in an answer being given. I take the point about the scoping exercise that was being carried out and I will arrange for the Minister, Deputy Creed, to follow through on that. The process and the system are in place and if farmers were being paid 75% of what they are owed, the Deputy would be asking me in this House why were they were not paid the remaining 25%.

No, I would not-----

The fact of the matter is that the person will get 100% payment if they get it right in the beginning.

The Deputies should table a Topical Issue on the matter. I call Deputy Durkan.