Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We are opposing the fact that the Statute of Limitations will not apply and that the Minister can seek to recover grants for up to 20 years. I know it will be argued that trees grow for 20 years etc. However, I have had farmers come in 12 or 13 years after the land was checked and a grant awarded only for the Department to claim it had changed the way it does its calculation of ecological areas and so on and, even though the whole thing was done professionally from the very beginning, looking to get money back. That undermined the bank's confidence in the grant because the accumulation of even a very small amount of money over 20 years amounts to a considerable amount of money. The banks then get concerned as to whether these grants are worth the paper they are written on given that the Department can come after the person who got the grant well into the future. The five-year retrospection on the LPIS is a warning to all of us as to what can happen.

The Bill allows for up to 20 years for somebody to come back with a better measuring tape on something that was approved for a grant, claim there was a miscalculation and ask for the money back. It is outrageous and will undermine not only the confidence of farmers investing in forestry but will also undermine the confidence of financial institutions lending money to people to invest because banks are always worried that a grant might be clawed back. If somebody is overpaid by €500 each year for 20 years, the person can suddenly get a bill for €10,000. In the greater scheme of things that would be a very small joint error because when the application is made there is a chance to check that everything in the application is correct.

I believe this section should be deleted.