Mr. Michael Moloney:

Area monitoring has been an improvement on what was traditionally - I think the Chair referred to it - a 5% inspection. Inspections for land eligibility checks were done by remote sensing, which was using satellites, and, classically, on the ground. In 2023, we moved to 100% monitoring so more than 1 million parcels were monitored systematically. As a result, fewer farmers were held up regarding payments in the new system of AMS than in the previous.

I will provide some figures on the level of red parcels. There is a traffic light system: green was nearly 73% of all parcels last year; amber or yellow was almost 27% - yellow means there is an issue but no stop or hold-up in payment; red, which was the notifications we sent out to farmers, was 0.68%. That is the starting point but expert judgment is another layer where we can view the imagettes taken. That is a weekly set of images. After that stage, we were down to 0.01% red parcels. As a result of 100% monitoring of more than 1 million parcels we were down to that level.

Where there is a red notification, clearly the AMS detects something. I was involved in explaining this to farmers. There was a media campaign, webinars, clinics and information sessions last year. There was a misconception we had a wall of computers in front of us and were looking into the farmer's yard to see him calving cows or spreading slurry. It was not like that and we availed of the opportunity through "Ear to the Ground" to show much of this is computer generated. The computer determines what is there. For example, in March this year we sent out notifications on 1,700 parcels where we detected, in advance of their lodging a BISS application, artificial surfaces: house sites, farmyards, roadways, etc. The purple dot marks the spot where we think something is there. In some cases, it is a house site. It could be bare soil around the farmyard where there was excavation and that is clear. Farmers will make adjustments to that, hopefully, in their BISS applications.

On 6 June this year, we will tell farmers who did not make adjustments "Here's a red notification" so they can go in and make the amendments. We have a round in July and August where a farmer could have inadvertently declared one crop but we find something different. The big advantage is the farmer, up to 15 days before we start payment - this year it will be 3 September - can go in, accept or reject the finding, send in a geotag photo - in other words, change it completely from protein crop to grass - and there is no impact on the payment. A number of years ago when an inspector went in and a farmer had been claiming a protein crop which attracts an additional payment, that farmer would have not received payment and would have had a penalty. Now the facility is there to accept human error. They make the change and submit the geotag photo.

We had a 92% response rate last year, which was fantastic. Some 37% of responses submitted geotag photos. Some of them might have accepted what we said but did not send in the photo. Sending in the photo takes that parcel out of monitoring. We want to minimise that parcel coming out in subsequent rounds. Once we have a photo and are happy with it, it is clear. The only time we go on the ground with area monitoring is where a photograph is submitted and they say "No, it is protein crop" or "It is barley" but the photograph is not clear it is a crop. We go to ground to verify it. Whether it is barley, wheat or oats, generally there is not an impact on payment but the claim from the beneficiary has to be right.

Last year, AMS was rolled out for BISS, CRISS, ANC, the protein aid and the straw incorporation measure. It was mandatory in 2023. We are now rolling it out to the likes of ACRES and eco-schemes where we can. The agri-stamp app we have will be enhanced as we learn about its use and about making it easier for farmers to use. Much of the interaction last year was with the advisor and the planner.