NICOLA Sturgeon has apologised to Scottish farmers after botched IT left the Government facing the real possibility of missing a deadline to process European agricultural subsidies for a second year running.
The Scottish Government says it will try to get the money out before next week’s deadline, but yesterday admitted it had asked the EU for an extension.
Their failure to make the payments could see the government slapped with a £60m fine.
According to the Tories around a third of payments have still to be made. Speaking at an industry event at the Royal Highland Show, the First Minister said: “We have made a clear commitment to do all we can to make the 2016 pillar one payments by the end of next week, the set payment period, although we have discussed the contingency of an extension to that with the European Commission.
“At present we’ve made more than £249 million of these payments and of course farmers have been given access to loans pending the delivery of their actual payments.
“We are making significant progress now on payments and on resolving the remaining IT issues in the system. I want to assure you today... there’s no complacency on the Scottish Government’s part about this matter.
“We have already apologised and we do so again today to farmers for the failures that have been experienced in the system.
“And I guarantee that we will continue to give this matter our full focus and attention to ensure that farmers get the service that they deserve.”
The request for an extension from the Scottish Givernment led to the Scottish Conservatives accusing Sturgeon of treating the Scottish Parliament with “utter contempt”.
Just hours before Ministers admitted they had asked the EU to give them another three months, Ruth Davidson had been rebuffed when she tried to probe the SNP leader on payments during First Minister’s Questions.
Tory MSP Finlay Carson called for the Rural Economy minister to go: “By failing to be clear with farming leaders, it’s clear that Fergus Ewing has lost the confidence of many people in rural Scotland – and he should be considering his position.”
When the EU granted the extension to the deadline last year, it insisted it was an “exceptional measure”.
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