Arthur Morgan (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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Question 322: To ask the Minister for Agriculture and Food if she will introduce legislation or regulation to enforce the recommendation of a report (details supplied). [27371/05]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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Compliance with good farming practice is an obligation for farmers participating in the following schemes: compensatory allowances, installation aid, the on-farm investment schemes, REPS and the scheme of early retirement from farming, in which it applies to transferees. Compliance with good farming practice is one of the undertakings checked in the course of on-farm inspections relating to these schemes carried out by my Department.

Good farming practice was also obligatory in the past for participants in the arable aid and animal premium schemes which have now been replaced by the single payment scheme. As part of cross-compliance under the single payment scheme, farmers must comply with the requirements of the nitrates directive. The implementation of the directive is a matter in the first instance for the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, who has recently published draft regulations to give effect to the national action programme under the nitrates directive. These draft regulations, which are the subject of a consultative process, include controls on the use of animal manure.