Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is on my bucket list. I welcome the opportunity to address this matter on behalf of the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy Creed. I hope the Deputy will accept the Minister's apologies for not being able to take it in person.

The range of schemes available to farmers, such as the BPS, greening and the ANC scheme are vital supports which help to underpin the continued development of a competitive and sustainable agrifood sector. These payments also provide a significant financial boost for individual farmers and the wider rural economy. It must also be noted that under EU regulations, all applications under the BPS and ANC scheme are subject to robust administrative checks prior to payment. Only valid applications under the BPS and ANC which fully comply with the requirements of the EU legislation are paid. The main element of these administrative checks is an area assessment. This is achieved by using the detailed database of individual land parcels known as the land parcel identification system, LPIS, which currently records electronically more than 1 million individual land parcels. It is essential it is up to date and accurate.

Ineligible features, such as buildings, rock, scrub, land burned between March and 31 August, bog lands unfit for grazing or lakes, are excluded from payment. The integrity of the Department's LPIS and payment system is subject to frequent audit by the EU authorities. Any weaknesses in the system, such as failure to detect ineligible land parcels, leaves Ireland exposed to serious financial penalties which can run to tens of millions of euros. We recently had to pay €60 million in a disallowance and further audits are now under way.

With regard to the BPS and greening payment, advance payments began issuing on 16 October 2017. This is the earliest that payments can commence for these schemes under the governing EU regulations. It is worth noting that Ireland is among the earliest in the European Union to pay the BPS. In addition, the level of the advance payment was, following contact with the European Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, Phil Hogan, set at 70% for 2017 rather than the normal 50%.

On 16 October 2017, BPS payments worth some €700 million were issued to 111,000 farmers. Regular payments have continued since then, including 30% balancing payments delivered on 1 December. To date, in excess of 122,000 farmers, representing 99% of eligible applicants, have received payments amounting to more than €1.05 billion. ANC scheme payments commenced on schedule on 20 September 2017. Payments totalling €200 million have been made to in excess of 93,500 farmers. The Department has been effective in issuing payments to farmers amounting in total under the BPS and the ANC scheme to €1.25 billion over the past four months.

Moving to the question of land eligibility, applicants under BPS are paid annually on the basis of the number of entitlements held with the requirement to have an eligible hectare of agricultural land per entitlement. In this context, an eligible hectare is land that is used for an agricultural activity. Ineligible features, such as buildings, rock, scrub, land burned between 1 March and 31 August, bog lands unfit for grazing, lakes etc., are excluded from payment.

Where land has been burned, it is not in a state suitable for an agricultural activity such as grazing or cultivation and, therefore, it is not eligible, except where controlled burning is carried out. It is specified in the 2017 BPS terms and conditions that under section 40 of the Wildlife Act 1976, as amended by the Wildlife (Amendment) Act 2000, growing vegetation cannot be burned between 1 March and 31 August of any given year on any land not yet cultivated. These terms and conditions were circulated to all farmers in early March 2017.

It was apparent during the closed season for burning in 2017 that there was widespread burning of vegetation. Accordingly the Department confirmed via press release on 17 May that it was investigating the illegal burning of land. It was also publicised that such land is not eligible for payment under the BPS and other area-based schemes. Farmers were also advised that if they had included illegally burned land in their 2017 BPS application already submitted to the Department, they should remove this land by means of submitting an amendment form. Inclusion of illegally burned land in the 2017 BPS application could result in reduced payment and penalties under this scheme and the other area-based schemes.

The Department actively investigated incidents of illegal burning using the most up-to-date technology and satellite imagery. During that investigation, the Department identified lands that were included in some 2017 BPS applications, including by farmers on the commonage mentioned by the Deputy, which have been subject to burning after the permitted timeframe and would, therefore, be deemed ineligible for payment under the 2017 BPS.

Accordingly, overclaims arose as the area declared in the 2017 applications by a number of these applicants was greater than the maximum eligible area of the parcels determined by the Department.

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