Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)

I thank Senator Mansergh for raising this important issue. I am aware he has raised the matter directly with the Minister for Agriculture and Food, Deputy Coughlan.

The Department of Agriculture and Food, in the context of delivering the single payment scheme, is required to carry out on-the-spot inspections on a number of farms covering such issues as eligibility, compliance with EU legislation on the environment, food safety, animal health and welfare and plant health and ensuring that the farm is maintained in good agricultural and environmental condition.

A minimum of 5% of single payment scheme applicants is required to be inspected under the eligibility rule. Up to two-thirds of these inspections are carried out without a farm visit, using the technique of remote sensing. The rate of on-farm inspection required for cross-compliance is 1% of those farmers to whom the statutory management requirements, including the nitrates directive, or good agricultural environmental conditions apply. However, at least 5% of producers must be inspected under the bovine animal identification and registration requirements as prescribed under the relevant regulations.

Of the 130,000 farmers who applied for the single payment scheme this year, 8,200 have had their holdings selected for on-the-spot inspection. Almost 100,000 of these are also applicants for the disadvantaged areas scheme. The value of both schemes to Irish farmers in 2006 is €1.55 billion. The policy regarding on-farm inspection has been to give advance notification of up to 48 hours in all cases. This policy was questioned by the European Commission in July 2006 and as a result the Department was obliged to agree to a proportion of single payment scheme inspections in 2006 being carried out without prior notification.

Some 650 farms of the 130,000 involved in the single payment scheme were subsequently selected for unannounced inspection. The balance of inspection cases, representing 92% of the 8,200 farms selected for single payment scheme-disadvantaged areas scheme inspection in 2006, are pre-notified to the farmer.

The EU regulations governing the single payment scheme would allow my Department to give prenotification of inspection in all cases where certain elements of cross-compliance are involved, namely, the nitrates regulations as referred to by Senator Mansergh. However, my Department is committed, in the Charter of Rights for Farmers 2005-2007, to carrying out all single payment scheme and disadvantaged area scheme checks during a single farm visit in most cases. This then obliges my Department to respect the advance notice requirements applicable to the most stringent element of the inspection regime, namely, a maximum of 48 hours notice but with no advance notice in a proportion of cases.

The Department of Agriculture and Food is also committed in the charter of rights to pursuing with the European Commission a strategy to deliver advance notification of 14 days for inspections, a strategy strongly supported by Senator Mansergh. The matter has been raised with the Commission on a number of occasions since 2004, particularly in the context of the Irish situation where we are applying a fully decoupled and essentially area-dependent single payment scheme. I personally made the case again recently to Commissioner Fischer Boel and this issue is a key point for me in the CAP simplification initiative which is now under way. I assure Senator Mansergh and Members of the Seanad that the Minister for Agriculture and Food, Deputy Coughlan, has consistently raised this issue with the Agriculture Commissioner. In the past few weeks the Minister travelled to Germany to meet with the German Minister, who will assume responsibility for the Council during the first six months of next year, in regard to advancing the simplification model. This issue is top of the Minister's agenda. It is being pursued at every opportunity at Council of Agriculture Ministers level and with fellow agriculture Ministers in the other 24 member states.

The prenotification of single payment scheme-disadvantaged areas scheme inspections fits in with the practicalities of Irish agriculture where increasingly farmers are also engaged in off-farm employment. In a decoupled single payment scheme system, the provision of advance notification of inspection to the farmer should not negatively impact on the effectiveness of the control. However, as EU regulations stand, my Department is obliged to carry out a small proportion of inspections without prior notification and this is being done in 2006. I have made available to the farm organisations and those farmers being inspected the checklist of items to be inspected. I propose to send it to all farmers early in 2007.

Regarding sanctions, the EU regulations set out a range of percentage reductions for non- compliance. Where the non-compliance results from negligence by the farmer, a 3% reduction may be applied but this can be reduced to 1% or increased to 5% depending on the extent, severity and permanence of the infringement. If the non-compliance is repeated within a three-year period, a multiplier of 3 must be applied. A 20% reduction is proposed where intentional infringement occurs but this can be reduced to 15% or increased to 100% depending on the extent, severity and permanence of the infringement.

The crucial element in the regulation is that, for a sanction to be applied in the first place, the non-compliance must result from negligence by the farmer. My Department, therefore, takes due account of infringements of the cross-compliance requirements that are, on their own, inadvertent and minor in nature and do not result from negligence of the farmer and are capable of occurring in practical farming situations. This refers to Senator Mansergh's final comments in regard to compliance and the NCT system. In such circumstances a certain level of tolerance is applied while, at the same time, the farmer is notified of the infringement. Some 1,127 farmers who were technically non-compliant during 2005 did not incur any financial penalty as a result of this tolerance. I am sure those figures will re-assure Senator Mansergh in terms of the operation of the scheme.

Ireland has adopted a weighting system that results in fair and equitable sanctions under cross-compliance. The system that has been developed also ensures that the sanctions are applied in a standardised fashion throughout the country. I trust my reply deals with the various raised by Senator Mansergh.