Mr. Paul McKiernan:

I will speak briefly as I think we sent this material to the committee after the last meeting. Deputy Charlie McConalogue had asked for the burden of proof to be outlined. The relevant articles are Articles 77 and 97 of EU Regulation No. 1306/2013. Article 97 relates to cross-compliance, while Article 77 refers to eligibility checks. We took a lot of advice on this issue from our legal services. They gave us very comprehensive advice. Members will also be aware that we are subject to continuous audit, particularly by the Commission. It can impose very harsh and draconian penalties on Ireland if it deems that it has been remiss. The regulation was examined by our legal services which gave us the following advice.

There was scope for an administrative penalty where the burden of proof was lesser. We would have had those discussions if we could have reasonably believed the applicant was not responsible for it and then we could have waived the administrative penalty. We are bound by the regulations, however, and as the Deputy said there are domestic regulations also.