Noel Harrington (Cork South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Not being a member of the committee, I welcome the opportunity to contribute. I welcome those who have made presentations to the committee today. I come from west Cork which is one of the hardest hit areas under the LPIS and land eligibility debacle. It first came to my attention 14 or 15 months ago that this would be an issue, particularly in the western part of County Cork where there is a great deal of marginal land. I have seen every kind of scenario where farmers have been hit with 100% penalties and the potential for retrospective payments to be made which, essentially, would put them out of business and off the land. The farmers who have been hit with slight penalties are completely confused as to why they have been penalised and farmers who have been very responsible in excluding what they believed to be eligible land suddenly find that they had not excluded enough or misinterpreted what they should have been including in their farm plans. There are also farmers who were not penalised, who excluded lands in very marginal and difficult areas and continued to receive the payments to which they are entitled. I know of farmers who have accepted that some of the lands they included for whatever reason were ineligible and they are making payments, whether reduced or otherwise. A tiny minority accept that but a huge majority of those who have been penalised are furious at the perceived inconsistency in interpreting how their lands should be assessed. As someone mentioned previously, it is a very subjective exercise in those areas. Deputy Connaughton referred to circumstances in which there could be a doubling or tripling of the percentage assessed as eligible or not.

I realise through the individual cases that have come to my office what the problems are. Some of the potential solutions have been outlined but I am not sure that they will go far enough. I presume the Minister and departmental representatives are being invited to the committee and we will welcome that presentation and testimony to get the Department's side. In reality, however, under the eligibility for basic payments, we are 14 or 15 months too late.

We have lost a lot of time in trying to deal with this issue. The sooner we get everyone to deal with what farmers have had to deal with on their own, and through their consultants, the better. It has been very difficult.

Are all the consultants affiliated to the Agricultural Consultants Association, or are there any who are not affiliated and thus working as lone rangers for want of a better term? Is that an issue in terms of possible inconsistencies in plans?

The farming organisations, consultants and the Department will have to come together to find a solution to what is a major problem, particularly for those areas that have marginal lands. There are farmers who simply do not know if they will have a future in 2016 or 2017. Will they have a cashflow or will the banks foreclose if their payments are suspended? There is a lot of fear and we should be trying to assuage it as soon as possible.