Paul Connaughton (Galway East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his reply. I have no issue with farm inspections. They play a role in the Irish brand and we want to maintain current levels, which farmers understand. More than any other issue, I wish to raise that of payments being sought in respect of 2008 to 2011, inclusive. I understand that a new mapping service is being used, one that is extremely detailed and only became available to the Department this year. Any farmer with whom I have spoken or dealt wants to apply for the eligible land only. That is not an issue. Rather, those farmers have an issue with the retrospective fines that are being applied, given the fact that they used the maps that were available at the time. The information was also supplied by the Department.

In terms of audits, I understand that Europe wants to ensure that the money is spent exactly as it is supposed to be and that fines and penalties can arise. However, Europe is being slightly unfair, in that backdating these payments now is difficult when farmers used all of the information available to them at the time to submit their applications for the rural environment protection scheme, REPS, or the single farm payment. Will the Minister of State or the Minister, Deputy Coveney, have an opportunity within the coming weeks to take a message to Europe to the effect that every Irish farmer wants to stay within the law and only get paid for what he or she is able to do? It is unfair that backdating is being applied to payments when farmers had no hand, act or part in the making of this situation, given that they were only using the Department's information.

See this speech in context