Dinny McGinley (Donegal South West, Fine Gael)
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Question 213: 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. [26183/05]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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An important part of the reform of the CAP leading to the introduction of the single payment scheme is the creation of an effective link between EU support for agriculture and measures aimed at protecting the environment and improving the countryside as well as achieving high standards in food safety and in animal health and welfare. Farmers receiving direct aid under the single payment scheme are required to observe various statutory management requirements on the environment, food safety, animal health and welfare and plant health. They must also maintain their land in good agricultural and environmental condition. This is known as cross-compliance.

In general the rate of on-farm inspection required for cross-compliance is 1% of those farmers to whom the relevant statutory management requirement, SMR, or good agricultural and environmental condition, GAEC, apply. However at least 5% of producers must be inspected under the animal identification and registration requirements, as this level is prescribed under the relevant regulations. This applies to bovines only as sheep are being discussed.

In addition to cross-compliance checks, it is a requirement to carry out standard eligibility checks to verify that the actual area claimed in the single payment application form corresponds with the area held by the farmer and to ensure there are no overlapping or duplicate claims.

My Department, as the EU accredited paying agency, will have primary responsibility to ensure that the required level of cross-compliance inspections is carried out and for fixing any sanctions to be applied. At the same time the competent control authorities are responsible for ensuring compliance with the standards and requirements defined under the SMRs and good agricultural and environmental conditions. The competent control authority responsible for compliance with identification and registration of cattle is the national beef assurance division of my Department while the body responsible for ensuring compliance with the habitats directive is the National Parks and Wildlife Service section of the Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government. The Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government and local authorities have responsibility for compliance with the requirements defined in the sewage sludge, and protection of groundwater directives.

In implementing the single payment scheme, the policy of my Department is to minimise the number of inspection visits and to move towards a situation where, in most cases, all eligibility and cross-compliance checks will be carried out during a single farm visit. My Department has consulted all competent control authorities to ensure the maximum level of integration of inspections across all areas. This approach should minimise the level of inconvenience to farmers. However, in certain instances it may not be possible to avoid more than one inspection of the same holding. On this basis it is estimated that, in all, fewer than 10,000 inspections will be carried out annually under the single payment scheme. This represents a reduction of approximately 50% in the number of inspections carried out annually under the old coupled direct payments schemes.

My Department has engaged in detailed discussions with farming organisations in the context of a new charter of rights for farmers. The charter will set out the criteria under which on-farm inspections will be carried out with a view to ensuring that the arrangements are fair and equitable and that minor non-compliance will not give rise to any financial sanction.

The European Commission has conducted a preliminary audit of our system and has signalled in preliminary findings that the tolerance levels proposed are likely to result in the application of sanctions at the lower end of the acceptable scale. My Department is awaiting the Commission's final report and confirmation that it regards the framework for the application of cross-compliance checks in Ireland as fully meeting the requirements. The next step is to make arrangements for implementing the seven statutory management requirements, SMRs, applicable from 1 January 2006 and the three SMRs applicable from 1 January 2007. Work has already commenced in this respect.