Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin North Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Connaughton for raising this very important issue. The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine is unfortunately not available to take the Topical Issue but I am responding in his place.

Prior to November 2010 member states were obliged under EU legislation to publish information - names, addresses and amounts received - on recipients of amounts paid out of the European Agricultural Guarantee Fund, EAGF, or European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development, EAFRD, CAP funds. This information was made available on the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine website and, in line with EU requirements, included a search engine to permit users to search the database using different criteria.

On 9 November 2010, following its judgment in a case taken by German CAP beneficiaries, the European Court of Justice found that aspects of EU legislation requiring the publication of information on beneficiaries of CAP funds, who are natural persons, were invalid. On the day that the judgment was delivered the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine took down the CAP beneficiaries' database from its website. Following that judgment and pending the adoption of new rules taking account of the objections expressed by the court, the EU Commission adopted amending legislation in order to lay down explicitly that the obligation to publish the information on the beneficiaries does not apply to natural persons. However, they instructed member states to continue to publish information on legal persons and the Department has done so on an annual basis.

Following the extensive analysis and the consultation with the stakeholders, the EU Commission determined that it was critical that any new proposal must observe a balance between the pursued objective of the public control of the use of the money from the EAGF and the EAFRD on the one hand, and the beneficiaries' right to respect for their private life in general and to protection of their personal data on the other.

In September 2012 the Commission made a proposal on the publication of data on amounts received by all beneficiaries - natural and legal persons - that was intended to take account of the European Court of Justice judgment. The Commission's basic rationale was that it considered it vital to inform citizens how Union funds are being spent and that the new rules are based on a justification centred on the need for public control over the use of funds. The proposals were the subject of intensive discussion at Council meetings and subsequently in the formal discussions with the EU Commission and the European Parliament which led to the adoption of the new CAP and the legislation which underpins it.

In accordance with EU legislation the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine is obliged to ensure annual ex-post publication of all of the beneficiaries of CAP funding including both legal and non-legal persons. In accordance with regulations the Department must publish the name of the beneficiary, unless the amount of payment under CAP funds is less than €1,250 in which case the individual will be identified by a code; the municipality where the beneficiary is resident; the amount of payment corresponding to each measure received by a beneficiary; and the nature and description of each measure. In accordance with the regulation the Department will publish such information by the 31 May 2015 deadline. Work is currently ongoing within the Department on this issue.

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