Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)

——given the headlines people speak about in regard to dreaded inspections and so on. The bottom line is that the farming fraternity has been accustomed to inspections all its life and the majority of farmers have no problem with inspections. That will continue to be the case because they are working under the good farming practice which is almost equivalent to the new requirements.

The tolerances were introduced on the basis of the penalties imposed at the time. Penalties have been reduced but the tolerances will remain. If one has a smaller herd it should be easier to look after the number of cattle and the number of tags. There has been much consultation on that issue and it has not been signed off completely. I hope to have it signed off in a final discussion with the farming organisations next week and a decision by me after that. What we are looking at is consultation, practical application and inspections. People forget that we are reducing the number of inspections considerably. Many of the reasons penalties were imposed on people were not related to inspections but the way in which they filled in their application form. There were minor errors, for example, with the wrong number on a tag.

They do not have to do that now and retention periods are gone. I hope this will reduce the bureaucracy and some of the small things that happened.

A great deal of work has been done on inspections. I have had discussions with the Department on training for the inspectors. I do not see the devil in the detail. We are aiming at single inspections per farm but more may be required if difficulties are apparent. There will not be a significant change in the methodology of inspection. People will be supported. I will review the matter on an ongoing basis.

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