Jim Glennon (Dublin North, Fianna Fail)
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Question 129: To ask the Minister for Agriculture and Food her plans for inspections under the cross compliance requirements of the single farm payments scheme in 2006; and the way in which this compares with the level of inspections in 2005 and 2004. [24478/06]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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The rate of on-farm inspections for cross-compliance in Ireland in 2005 was 1% of farmers for each Statutory Management Requirement (SMR) other than identification and registration of bovine animals where 5% of producers were inspected as this level is prescribed under the relevant Regulations. The inspection visits are integrated with ground (eligibility) inspections with a view to ensuring, as far as possible, that only one visit is made to each farm. In this context inspections under the Disadvantaged Areas Compensatory Allowance scheme are also integrated with the eligibility and cross-compliance inspections under the Single Payment Scheme. This resulted in a total of just over 10,000 inspections in 2005.

My Department initiated discussions with the European Commission earlier this year with a view to ensuring that only the minimum number of inspections would be carried out in 2006 and subsequent years. The result of those discussions was that for 2006, Ireland can select the population of farmers to be checked for cross-compliance from within the 5% population to be selected for on-farm ground (eligibility) inspections. When carrying out inspections in respect of the 1% of applicants under SMRs other than identification and registration of animals, my Department is obliged to check for compliance for all of the SMRs pertaining to the applicant. My Department must also ensure that at least 5% of producers are inspected under the SMRs governing identification and registration of bovine animals. As a result of these changes, the number of farmers to be inspected under Cross-Compliance will reduce by some 2,000 from just over 10,000 in 2005 to just over 8,000 in 2006. This compares with some 18,500 inspections carried out under the old coupled regime in 2004.