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

Like the other members, I welcome the officials and the clarification and booklet on the different types of eligibility.

If one looks at the situation from the area where I come from in west Cork which was particularly hard hit by the eligibility issue, where the farmers stand now and what is ahead of them, more than 33,000 over-claim letters have gone out from the Department. Many of those recipients were able to offset the implications of those, maybe, with excess land or other lands, many have accepted proposed penalty arrangements and approximately 10,000 have appealed. From a starting figure of 33,000, there are 10,000 who would have appealed. Obviously, it is a significant amount of appeals. Where do they stand? Will the Department go right back to see whether the clarified land eligibility criteria fit in with respect to those farm payments? Many of those farmers are already repaying or have repaid. Some in my area are mounting a locally funded legal challenge to the issue, and I do not know how that will pan out. However, many are still terrified of the prospect of retrospective penalties. Some would not recover from that and, potentially, would be put out of business. They would be driven from the land. Where do they stand, on 28 April 2015, having first known or heard about this only 18 months ago?

The clarification booklet that the Department will send out to every farmer will go a long way in clarifying to a farmer, in preparation for his or her application in 2015, what should and should not be included as eligible land, but there is still an element of subjective analysis that would be required. I refer to the mapping system with the red line area where a farmer can bring in his own red marker. If a farmer had a bit of dense rush, scrub or furze on a parcel, the red line could become a mathematical exercise where he could include a lot of eligible land within that red line to reduce the dense nature of the rush, scrub or furze and not affect the overall eligibility of the parcel. While that is there, the red line could become a moveable feast here in terms of how a farmer would assess how to work around it. It is not fixed. There is also the subjective nature of the upland, for instance, with the height and woodiness of heather. I live in an area where there is a considerable amount of commonage and uplands. One could almost describe the entire area on the western part of west Cork, the peninsulas and the island areas, as marginal lands. I still have a concern that the farmers, their planners and Department officials will never be on the same hymn sheet on the subjective nature of that land and if they are not to face further penalties, particularly given the importance of this year, they will need further supports.

I agree with the concerns raised about burning. Unfortunately, we have seen a spike in it. That is merely my own opinion. From my own observations around west Cork, it has been quite prevalent when there has been a fine spell. It is a most contentious area. If the Department is to exclude somebody's single farm payment because lands that he or she owned were burned, it will be difficult to see that through. When the local authorities are looking to send out invoices for their efforts, all of a sudden they find out the issue that is involved with respect to who is responsible. I would be very careful about falling into that quagmire of liability with respect to lands being burned.

I welcome the booklet, which will give further clarity. I do not think it will satisfy everything. I am concerned that thousands of farmers are facing punitive measures. Where do they stand?