Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 3 July 2024

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine

Statement of Strategy 2023-2026: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine

5:30 pm

Mr. Brendan Gleeson:

I apologise for having to refer to Mr. Callanan. One measure is a reduction in the requirement for inspections, so essentially we will not have to inspect farms of fewer than 10 ha. We will apply that but we have to submit proposals by way of an amendment to the CAP strategic plan for that.

The other matter that was significant was the requirement to have space for nature on 4% of a farm. That does not affect us much because when we did the eco scheme, virtually every farm had 4% space for nature so that did not make significant difference. However, all those simplifications will be applied.