Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Under the terms and conditions of the direct aid schemes, which include the single payment scheme and the disadvantaged area scheme, farmers are obliged to declare only eligible land when making their applications, ensuring they exclude ineligible features such as roads, buildings, farmyards and dense scrub. These claims are then recorded on my Department’s land parcel identification system, LPIS. Given the importance of the LPIS database and the inspection system in underpinning direct aid payments worth in excess of €1.5 billion annually, my Department is obliged under EU regulations to ensure their accuracy. In the context of delivering the single farm payment scheme, the disadvantaged area scheme and other area-related schemes, my Department is required to carry out an annual round of inspections covering the eligibility of the land declared to draw down payments. The basis for these inspections is governed by EU legislation and there are certain minimum numbers that must be conducted each year. The details of the inspection results for the 2013 schemes are shown in the table below.

Following consultation with the European Commission, as part of the normal accounting process, my Department was requested to undertake a complete review of the LPIS database. This has resulted in a requirement to adjust the land parcels of a significant number of applicants where it was established that ineligible features had been included. To date, this review has resulted in the withholding of just over €10 million in single payment scheme payments from approximately 33,000 farmers and a further €2.3 million in disadvantaged area payments in 2013. A total of 276 applicants had 100% penalties under the 2013 single payment scheme, while 284 had 100% penalties under the 2013 disadvantaged areas scheme. In total, the review covers more than 132,000 applicants and the land parcels declared by them as eligible for payment under one of more of the above-mentioned schemes. It should be remembered that my Department operates a robust appeals mechanism, whereby, in the first instance, farmers may appeal internally to officials within my Department and then directly to the Agriculture Appeals Office, with final recourse to the Office of the Ombudsman.

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