Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Question 180: To ask the Minister for Agriculture and Food the steps she is taking to address the burden of cross compliance; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [3571/07]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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My Department, 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 under the Scheme, compliance with EU legislation in the areas of 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 are required to be inspected under the eligibility rule. Up to two-thirds of these inspections are carried out without a farm visit and 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 and environmental condition (GAEC) apply. However at least 5% of producers must be inspected under the Bovine Animal Identification and Registration requirements as this level is prescribed under the relevant Regulations.

In 2006, 7, 514 farmers have had their holdings selected for on-the-spot inspection out of some 130,000 who have applied for the Single Payment Scheme (over 100,000 of these are also applicants for the Disadvantaged Areas Scheme). The value of both schemes to Irish farmers is some €1.55 billion in 2006.

The policy towards on-farm inspection has been to give advance notification of up to 48 hours in all cases. This policy of systematic pre-announcement of inspections was questioned by the European Commission in July 2006 and its unacceptability was conveyed to my Department in a formal communication in August. As a result, my Department was obliged to agree to a proportion of Single Payment Scheme inspections being carried out in 2006 without prior notification. Some 650 farms out of 130,000 involved in the Single Payment Scheme were subsequently selected for unannounced inspection. The balance of inspection cases, representing some 92% of the 7,514 farms selected for Single Payment Scheme/Disadvantaged Areas Scheme inspection in 2006, were all pre-notified to the farmer.

The EU regulations governing the Single Payment Scheme would allow my Department to give pre-notification of inspection in all cases where certain elements of cross-compliance are involved e.g. the Nitrates Regulations. 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 one 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 viz. maximum of 48 hours notice but with no advance notice in a proportion of cases.

My Department 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. 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 operating a fully decoupled and essentially area-dependent Single Payment Scheme. I have personally made the case again recently to Commissioner Fischer Boel and this issue will be a key point for Ireland in the CAP simplification initiative of the Commission which is now underway.

My Department believes that pre-notification 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 the EU regulations stand, my Department is obliged to carry out a small proportion of inspections without prior notification and this is what was done in 2006. My Department is seeking authority to allow advance notification in all inspection cases for 2007 and I will continue to press this point in the CAP simplification process.

I believe it is important to point out that the total level of cross compliance penalties in 2006 amounted to about €706,203.38. This represents just 0.05% out of the total Single Payment financial envelope of more than €1.3 billion available to Ireland.