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Department of Ag. wins Digital Excellence Award
The Direct Payments Systems developed in partnership with Version 1 has won in the Digital Excellence category at the 2016 Civil Service Excellence and Innovation Awards. An Taoiseach, Enda Kenny, TD, and the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Paschal Donohoe, TD, announced the 2016 winners at an awards ceremony hosted at the Royal Hospital Kilmainham, Dublin, on the 6th December.
Version 1 has partnered with the Department since 2014 in the design, development and support of all the core systems which enable the payments of all EU agricultural support schemes in Ireland under the Common Agricultural Policy. A newly redeveloped system went live in 2015 and issued over €1.2 billion of EU Direct Payments to farmers in its first year. Ireland was among the very first in Europe to make these payments in 2015.
Commenting on the award, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine Head of ICT Sean Keevey said “I would like to thank the Version 1 team who have worked so tirelessly on this project to make it such a great success. This has very much been a team effort where everyone working on entitlements, spatial and payments systems has played a vital part in delivering this challenging programme of work. We are all very proud of the achievements delivered over the last number of years; records set in online uptake, one of the first EU countries to make payments, delivery of more value added services to farmers and more.”