Tim Lombard (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the witnesses and thank them for their helpful opening statements. I will start with the Agricultural Consultants Association. I thank its representatives for their detailed opening statement. It is good to have them here. They represent an important cohort of farmers that needs to be represented at meetings like this. It is great to have this organisation in front of us.

I will go through the presentation. They mentioned the important issue of minor breaches. Could they elaborate on what is happening? There is a situation where if a document is missing or a document is stuck in a printer and not going with the plan, a person could be thrown out of the scheme for up to two years, while if you are not a derogation farmer and you are caught spreading slurry, you get a 5% fine on your single farm payment. The knock-on implications for one is absolutely huge while the knock-on implications for another is a minor fine of some nature. Do the witnesses think it is a fair enforcement of the minor breaches they mentioned by the Department enforcing the regulations? The farmers I talk to are horrified at the thought of being thrown out of the scheme for two years for getting a piece of their plan stuck in their printer.