Martin Ferris (Kerry North-West Limerick, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses. This meeting is long overdue. All of us who represent rural communities, particularly where there is a great deal of marginal land, have not quite been inundated but have received a large amount of representations concerning the land eligibility problem. Everyone agrees that many people have found themselves having penalties imposed as a result of doing what they were told to do by the Department. They were compliant with its criteria and directions at the time, but now they are facing severe penalties and losing many of their entitlements as a consequence. This is due to a lack of criteria and direction from the Department to the farming organisations and farmers and their advisers. There is no coherence in the criteria. It is disgraceful that farmers across the country find themselves being penalised and losing many of their entitlements retrospectively as a consequence of the Department's inactivity in helping people to deal with the situation.

If we are to find a mechanism to progress this and get justice for the people at the coalface - namely, farmers on commonages, hills and marginal land - the criteria and terms of reference need to be specific and understood unambiguously by the farmers and their representatives and advisers. Do the witnesses accept that one way of doing this is to set up a working group involving farming organisations, advisers and the Department?

Mr. Downey mentioned retrospective payments, a penalty that is being imposed on people who, as the Department led them to believe, were compliant. They were compliant, yet a penalty is being applied because of the failure of the Department and successive Governments to address this matter. Some people will receive no payments as a consequence.

A person who attended my office in Tralee yesterday told me that he rented land on which a penalty had been imposed in 2013. He asked for a manual inspection, which took place on all of the land except one part that could not be inspected because of the weather. However, the penalty remained the same. He owns a small bit of land and has entitlements in that respect, but the penalties applied to his rented land could spill over onto his own holdings.

Something needs to be done about this situation as soon as possible. I am disappointed that the witnesses were told it would be sorted out with the Department but nothing has happened. Have they contacted the Minister and emphasised the fact that this commitment has not been fulfilled? How do they propose to take on the matter? What advice would they give to the committee? I would have no problem proposing that we contact the Minister immediately and get this matter addressed. It needs to be done. The sufferers are hill farmers and people on marginal land who are desperate to have their entitlements sorted.