Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The EU Commission is currently engaged in a review of certain regulations pertaining to the basic payment and greening schemes.  This process was commenced to try to reduce the complexity of regulations for farmers and to make schemes less bureaucratic and more streamlined to administer.

As part of this process the Commission has introduced a proposal to ban the use of plant protection products on ecological focus areas, EFAs. In Ireland this proposed ban would relate to land lying fallow, catch crops and nitrogen-fixing crops.  This ban was opposed by Ireland along with 17 other member states.

For my Department, the main concern relates to nitrogen-fixing crops and specifically beans. In effect, the proposed ban would make it more difficult for growers to produce an economically viable crop of beans. In addition, a situation would arise where farmers growing beans but not using beans as part of their EFA would not be subject to this proposed ban.  Potentially we would therefore have two standards for growing the crop within the State, with attendant issues relating to scheme controls.

Fundamentally, the simplification process is not intended to place an increased burden on farmers and administrators.  My Department's view is that this proposal would lead to such an increased burden.

It is important to clarify that the current cross compliance rules that relate to the use of plant protection products ensure that such products are used correctly on all crops.  My Department ensures compliance with these regulations by means of regular notifications to farmers, such as the recently published Cross Compliance booklet, and by means of on-farm inspection.

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