Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)

Cross-compliance involves two key elements, namely, a requirement for farmers to comply with 18 statutory management requirements set down in EU legislation on the environment, food safety, animal health and welfare and plant health, and a requirement to maintain farms in good agricultural and environmental conditions. If an applicant is found to be non-compliant, sanctions provided for in the governing EU regulations will be applied to the applicant's single payment.

The rate of on-farm inspections required for cross-compliance is 1% of those farmers to whom the statutory management requirements or good agricultural and environmental conditions apply. However, at least 5% of producers must be inspected under the bovine animal identification and registration requirements, as this level is prescribed under the relevant regulations.

Guides to cross-compliance were issued to all farmers by my Department in early 2005 and August 2006. They detailed the cross-compliance requirements under the various EU regulations and gave information on inspection controls on farms. Wide-ranging consultation with the farm bodies has taken place and procedures are clearly set out in the charter of rights for farmers.

My Department has adopted a weighting system within the cross-compliance inspection regime whereby due account must be taken of infringements of the requirements that are inadvertent and minor in nature, do not result from the negligence of the farmer and are capable of occurring in practical farming situations. In such circumstances, a certain level of tolerance is applied while the farmer is notified of the infringement.

In implementing the single payment scheme, my Department's policy is to minimise the number of inspection visits and move towards a situation where, in most cases, all eligibility and cross-compliance checks will be carried out during a single farm visit. My Department is committed to ensuring the maximum level of integration of inspections across all areas, including inspections under the disadvantaged areas scheme. On this basis, my Department estimates that more than 8,000 farmers will be inspected annually under the single payment scheme, representing more than a 50% reduction in the number of inspections compared to the old coupled regime.

My Department is in regular contact with the EU Commission concerning the need for further simplification with particular reference to advance notice of inspections and tolerances. The initiative recently launched by the Commission on simplification of the Common Agricultural Policy provides the opportunity for a fresh look at cross-compliance and other single payment scheme issues. I will certainly press for this.

See this speech in context