Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The measurement of land area within the land parcel identification system respects all national surveying conventions with regard to slopes or hill land. The area quoted on Ordnance Survey Ireland maps, on which much of the land parcel identification system database is built, is based on the principle of measuring the horizontal or two-dimensional area. In cases of sloped land, this is the area of land measured on the flat or plain area. This convention extends to the purchase of agricultural land as well, whereby a purchaser would only pay for the horizontal area within the holding and not the sloped area. This procedure is the same as the method used during the single farm payment reference period. We are doing everything we can, in light of all the information available to us, to try to take account of contours and slopes. Farmers who feel they are being hard done by as a result of the use of this system should seek appeals to ensure their land holdings are accurately measured.

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