James Bannon (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)

The Minister said there would be annual inspections. I ask the Minister to be more clear on this. We know that farmers are being intimidated by officials from the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food by being made to undergo three or four inspections per year for the rural environment protection scheme. I am one of those farmers who had four inspections last year - one every three months. An act of God blew a tree down over an electric fence and I was denied part of my REPS payment because an inspector saw it in an image taken by satellite or aeroplane. I feel I was intimidated because I was denied my grant. Can we have guarantees in the legislation that the inspections will be annual? There is nothing in the Bill to say that inspections will not take place every two, three, four or five months. That could be the case. The Minister has not clarified this sufficiently.

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