Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. The Minister is acutely aware of the difficulties being experienced by farmers as a result of the prolonged adverse weather conditions in the current year. In so far as the direct aid related inspection regime is concerned, his Department is required to carry out a mandatory range of inspections to meet European Union requirements. In carrying out these responsibilities, however, which must be done to a standard which meets EU audit requirements to protect the drawdown of the significant funding involved, every effort is made to take account of the realities of farming and, in particular, the effects of the pattern of bad weather experienced this year.

The next paragraphs of my script sets out the importance of the direct payments scheme which I will not read out as we all know about that. I am taking that as read, as it were.

I now come to the net issue the Deputy has correctly raised. On behalf of the Minister, Deputy Coveney, I will give the House an overview of the nature of the inspection regime. The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, in the context of delivering the single payment scheme, the disadvantaged areas scheme and other area-based schemes, is required to carry out annual inspections covering both the eligibility of the land declared to draw down payments and also cross-compliance aspects to ensure compliance with EU regulatory requirements in the areas of public, animal and plant health, the environment and animal welfare. These inspections are mandatory and certain minimum numbers and types of inspections must take place annually.

Land eligibility checks must be carried out on 5% of applicants. These checks are carried out to verify the actual area claimed in the application form corresponds to the area farmed by the farmer and to ensure any ineligible land or features are not included for aid purposes. The Department has made every effort to respond to concerns about the impact of on-the-ground inspections on farmers and, arising from that, up to two thirds of these inspections are initially carried out without a farm visitas the information is verified using the technique of remote sensing via satellite.

The rate of inspections for cross-compliance is 1% of applicants to whom the statutory management requirements and good agricultural condition apply. However, 3% of farmers must be inspected under the bovine identification and registration requirements while 3% of sheep or goat farmers must be inspected covering 5% of the flock. It is a recognised principle of the direct aid regime that it serves broader public good objectives and contributes to the maintenance of the rural environment. These inspections are thus necessary to verify these objectives are being met.

On the timing of inspections, the overall annual inspection cycle can only commence following completion of a structured risk analysis selection process which includes the analysis and evaluation of data from the previous year's inspections. Eligibility inspections, as such, can only commence following the initial stages of processing of the current year's single payment scheme applications.

To be eligible to draw down EU funding, it is a requirement that all land eligibility inspections must take place before any payments can issue to any farmer in the country in a given year. While cross-compliance inspections can be carried out after payment has been made, it is a regulatory requirement that this category of inspection must take place throughout the calendar year to take account of specific requirements at individual statutory management requirement level. In so far as possible, the various categories of inspections are integrated with a view to avoiding more than one visit to a farm.There are also inter-agency agreements in place, for example, with local authorities, to facilitate this approach. In terms of delivery of on-the-ground inspections, all the Department's inspecting officers are very experienced and are trained to carry out inspections in a professional manner.

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