Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank our guests. I apologise for having to absent myself. I was trying to cover two headings at the same time. It is a very difficult thing to do. Those of us who are familiar with urban and rural areas would always be quick to point out that the qualification guidelines for European-based or European-assisted payments to farmers or anybody else are very rigid. They are much more rigid than they were. It makes great copy to put out the word in some quarters that there is huge scope for abuse in a particular area. It suffices to say that everything is now guided by satellite. All measurements are governed by satellite. On my way in this morning, I saw one of these mapping planes overhead. There is a revision taking place at present. It comes down to the last 5 ft. or 10 ft. It is even closer than that. They are down to the last foot. The same grids are used for sowing corn, cereals and all this kind of stuff. It is unbelievably minute in terms of its determination of area and space. The sowing of corn and cereal is done with the assistance of satellites at present. All one has to do is follow the GPS map and away one goes.

The degree to which severe penalties are applied to the overlooking of guidelines, which could be accidental or deliberate, is another issue. No really fair method of assessing why they were overlooked has been identified. The penalties are very severe. In some cases, a penalty of three years of non-payment or non-qualification can be applied. My view is that this system is overly bureaucratised at present. Simplicity has gone out the window for a long time. With modern technology, it should not be as difficult to deal with areas as it was in the past. The farmer does not need to be the owner of the property. He is quite entitled to the same thing if he has the property leased. If one sows a garden on the corner of the property one has leased, that will be spotted by the aerial sector. The general rule is that the farmer, businessperson or whoever he is should over-estimate and err on the side of safety in order to ensure he is covered if he digs up a cabbage plot or something and takes it out of the area aid area and he will not be penalised for loss of supports over a wide area. We spoke before the meeting started about the protection of rural Ireland.