Joe O'Reilly (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the witnesses. The report is not country-specific and it is general under the different headings of expenditure, but would Mr. Cardiff respond to what is said to us at all our respective advice clinics and when we meet people on the street - that Ireland is far too compliant and we are far too much the good boy of Europe, that we are the best pupil in the class, to the detriment of our people and their interests, and that we over-adhere to rules and are overly oppressed by them? Could he respond to that?

In a similar vein, Mr. Cardiff said the over-declaration of land area is the most frequent error. I find in my clinic work that many farmers experience huge hardship in the area of maps. My experience from clinic work - I do not know if this is replicated in other agricultural constituencies - is that the farmers produce their maps in good faith, as per their own understanding of their holdings, and because of something from the digitised maps or whatever, they are alleged to be non-compliant, to have over-declared, perhaps because of a bog bank or old land ownership structures. It causes immense hardship for a number of individuals and we spend a great deal of time unravelling this for people in our constituency office. I presume that if we do this, so do many agricultural planners and professional people. I would like Mr. Cardiff's response to that.

There is another issue around procurement. I would be interested if Mr. Cardiff would elaborate on what he means by non-compliance in the area of procurement. An issue that affects a Border constituency in a big way is that many small jobs up our way in Cavan, Monaghan and along the Border must, under strict interpretation of EU laws, go to open tender, which means they must be cross-national. This means they must have tenders from Northern Ireland, and because of various considerations, such as wages, social welfare and other matters, it is possible for many small contractors on the northern side of the Border to do jobs much more cheaply in the Republic. Consequently, under EU regulations and as per the rules, they get the contracts. Is it the case that derogations are given in other states for small contracts and for a situation like ours? Is there potential for our Government to seek derogations for contracts under a certain level from the rule of international tendering or procurement? If there is not such a potential, am I wrong in thinking that it happens in other countries? It has been said to me - and truthfully I do not have the detail and I would be interested in Mr. Cardiff's response - that in France, for example, and other countries, the state has negotiated a situation where public procurements up to a certain value can be domestically sourced within EU law, by virtue of a concession granted.

From my practical interaction with the agricultural spend, I find that farmers go through awful hardship around the maps issue - the digitisation of maps, the lands, occasionally bog banks, old rights of way, etc. - and it costs them a great deal of angst and professional fees to sort it out. Sometimes the fees are a high proportion of the grant in the first case.

My second issue is around procurement in a Border area, where people across the Border in Northern Ireland can get a small job in the Republic of Ireland. They may have cheaper labour, there are all sorts of issues around social welfare and the black market economy, etc., which would be a breach of procurement, but a number of issues arise that might make it easy for competitors to come in and get a contract in the Republic. Many small contractors in my Border constituency of Cavan-Monaghan, and I presume also in Donegal and Louth, are greatly hampered by the rule that dictates that procurement must be offered into Northern Ireland. Is there potential for a derogation for a certain level of contract? I would be interested in Mr. Cardiff's response to all of that.