Examination of Witnesses (Questions 520
- 521)
WEDNESDAY 28 OCTOBER 2009
JIM FITZPATRICK
MP AND MR
JOHN BOURNE
Q520 Mr Williams:
Well, all I can say is that it probably is some reflection on
the way the RPA still is performing, and I think the Committee
might be looking at that again then perhaps after the Christmas
break. In Wales, 70% of the full value of the Single Farm Payment
was paid to people who have been affected by the collapse and
there is still a commitment in Wales to pay 90% of the total Single
Farm Payment to everybody by the first week in December. Surely
something could have been done. Turning again to the Chairman's
avenue of questioning, these people are in real trouble and it
is within the competence of Defra in terms of European regulation
to make these payments. Surely Defra would have been thought of
so much better by the farming community if it had gone the extra
mile and achieved what the Welsh Assembly Government has done.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Well, I do not
think I have got very much more to add, Mr Williams, to the comment
I made which was that, unless we were approached with exceptional
circumstances, the decision of the Department and the RPA was
that we would not go for early payments. Outlining the work that
the RPA is undertaking at the moment in terms of getting the mapping
completed so that we can re-populate the maps within the appropriate
timeframe for next year to make them more efficient and make them
more accurate to reduce the problems created for the industry,
and incidentally, for them, that was a bigger priority, I have
to say, as I outlined, I have not had pressure and I bump into
the NFU or meet them on a weekly basis sometimes and usually more
frequently.
Q521 Mr Williams:
It is a bit late now, is it not? The time to make that sort of
decision would have been when this collapse had happened and you
cannot address it now because you are so far down the process
of processing the Single Farm Payments, but, from my point of
view and from the point of view of lots of farmers and the farming
community as well, Defra could have been very well advised at
that early stage to make that commitment.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Well, we felt
we made the right strategic decision in respect of the issue,
Mr Williams, and obviously that is a matter of history now.
Chairman: Well, Minister and Mr Bourne,
thank you very much for your contribution. You have agreed to
provide the Committee with some additional information which we
look forward to. Can we thank you for your written submission
towards the evidence of the inquiry and thank you very much for
coming before us this afternoon.
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