Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 25 June 2025

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food

Delays in Departmental Scheme Payments: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine

2:00 am

Paraic Brady (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I have a couple of queries on penalties, inspections and one thing and another. The BISS, CRISS, eco, BDGP, sheep welfare and arable schemes were all set up in the new offices and there is no problem with IT. However, there is a problem with forestry and ACRES out of Wexford. Will Mr. Morrin explain that to me? Second, if you have an on the spot inspection with regard to removal of trees or hedgerows on your farm, you automatically incur a 1% penalty for taking out the trees, even though you have planted 2 m back for every tree you took out. This is the case because it happened to me. I would like Mr. Morrin's thoughts on that. You incur a 1% penalty even though you planted two trees back for every metre you took out.

Another thing came to me this morning in respect of a farmer who leases entitlements. A farmer has 20.8 entitlements and gave them to an auctioneer to lease on his behalf. The farmer who leased the entitlements had not enough land to activate those 20.8 entitlements. The farmer who leased the entitlements is now penalised for giving his entitlements to the auctioneer to lease out, because they are the low end of entitlement. They are not on the high end of it. How can it be the case, if I trust an auctioneer and give them my entitlements to lease out, that I get the penalty? In good faith, I gave my entitlements to that auctioneer to lease out the full entitlement. However, when the farm where the entitlement is leased into gets inspected, the penalty comes back on the lessor. I would like some thought on that to see if that is actually the case or if there is a process where that can be appealed. At the moment I have three cases where that is the case. Will Mr. Morrin answer those first?

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