Paul Connaughton Snr (Galway East, Fine Gael)
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Question 30: To ask the Minister for Agriculture and Food her plans for cross compliance under the single farm payment; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [17304/05]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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Under the new single payment scheme farmers receiving direct aid are required to respect the various statutory management requirements set down in EU legislation on the environment, food safety, animal health and welfare, and plant health and to maintain the farm in good agricultural and environmental condition. There is also an obligation on the member state to ensure that there is no significant reduction in the amount of land under permanent pasture by reference to the total area under permanent pasture in 2003. These requirements are known as cross compliance.

The EU directives and regulations referred to in cross compliance have been in place for many years. Producers are familiar with them and are complying with the standards set in implementing them in Ireland. The Department prepared a consultative document on cross compliance in October 2004 and invited views from interested organisations. Department officials met the main farming organisations in December to discuss their submissions and these discussions have continued more recently during the review of the protocol on direct payments.

An information booklet on cross compliance has been issued to all farmers and it sets out the principle features of cross compliance such as the standards that must be met by farmers and the control arrangements that are necessary. To coincide with the issue of the booklet, a series of nationwide farmer information meetings took place in April and were organised by the Department in conjunction with Teagasc. These meetings focused not only on cross compliance but addressed the various other issues associated with the introduction of the single payment scheme. In implementing that scheme, I aim to minimise the number of inspection visits and to move towards a situation where eligibility and cross compliance checks will be carried out during a single farm visit. It is envisaged that the 22,000 inspections, which were carried under the old regime, will be significantly reduced to around 10,000 under the single payment scheme. This approach should minimise the level of inconvenience to farmers. However, in certain instances more than one inspection of a holding may be unavoidable.

Denis Naughten (Longford-Roscommon, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister for her second reply on this issue. Will farmers be informed in advance of the category under which they will be inspected? Will they be inspected in regard to identification or under the single farm payment or will the category be decided by the inspectors when they arrive on site? We have been told that the majority of inspections in regard to cross-compliance, most of which will relate to the issues of permanent pasture and the areas claimed, can be done by satellite and will not require on-farm inspections. On this basis, why are we proceeding along these lines for on-farm inspections?

The Minister raised the issue of tolerance. We have the indicators only in regard to cattle but what she has said is contrary to what has been indicated in the media in that tolerance levels are higher the smaller the number of animals. The more animals a farmer has, the lower the levels of tolerance. This seems to be contrary to what should be the case. The Minister spoke about clerical errors and so on. I understand that unless farmers have corrected any errors by 31 May, they will be in breach of the cross-compliance regulations. Does this mean, for example, that a person who omits his or her date of birth on the form will be in breach? How will an error such as this be treated?

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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There has been no finality in our discussions on the protocol with the farm organisations but I hope they will conclude next week. As often happens, leaks from the committee appeared in newspapers. Although the substance of these leaks was incorrect, I could not do much about them once the newspapers had gone to print. I will make the paper publicly available once it has been agreed.

Farmers will be notified but it will apply for 48 hours rather than the 14-day period which farmers had sought. The clerical errors to which I referred relate to the difficulties caused by the previous experience of the need to complete so many forms dealing with such issues as retention periods and so on. This caused significant anguish for many farmers and we are all acutely aware of this from our constituency work. The introduction of a single application form will greatly alleviate difficulties in this regard.

I commend the farming organisations, farmers themselves, my Department and Teagasc on their tremendous efforts in support of the single farm payment scheme. Few mistakes were made and many people worked hard to get the system right and ensure applications were submitted on time. People have the opportunity to amend their applications up to the end of this month and anyone with concerns can contact the Department. I commend those involved on the forthrightness and exuberance they displayed in ensuring these forms were available and received on time by the Department.

There has been much comment to the effect that these inspections will be different from what happened heretofore. They will be different to the extent that inspection was previously based on the number of stock but will now be based on one's land. Identification has not been a major issue. The cattle movement monitoring system, CMMS, has worked well and people generally keep good records. I am introducing further technology to ensure people have access to their farm profiles, an issue previously raised by Deputy Naughten. This means farmers will be able to identify easily any mistakes that have been made in regard to their herds.

All this will facilitate farmers in ensuring they get the payment to which they are entitled. I am not here to prevent people from getting their due but rather to ensure they do. There will sometimes be a personality clash at the gate. This is why I introduced training and is the reason the system will be kept under review. The first lot of inspections are taking place and that experience will be examined. The bottom line is that I must ensure people are paid in the first week of September and on the first day of December.

Denis Naughten (Longford-Roscommon, Fine Gael)
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Will farmers know in advance the category under which they will be inspected?

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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Yes, there is a list. Categories include environment, birds and habitat, sludge and pollution, nitrates — if the relevant directive is ever implemented — and identification.

Denis Naughten (Longford-Roscommon, Fine Gael)
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Will farmers be aware whether the inspections of their farms come under the category of cross-compliance or identification?

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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Yes, they will be told.

Johnny Brady (Meath, Fianna Fail)
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I take this opportunity to compliment the staff in each office who worked so late and over the weekends to ensure applications were submitted on time.