Gay Mitchell (Dublin South Central, Fine Gael)
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Question 24: 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. [8817/07]

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 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.

Inspections under the 2007 scheme have not yet commenced. In 2006, 7,514 farmers 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 Disadvantaged Areas Scheme). The value of both schemes to Irish farmers was some €1.55 billion in 2006. It should be noted that while 1,414 farmers were subject to cross-compliance penalties under the 2006 Single Payment Scheme, a further 804 farmers, while technically in breach of the requirements, did not suffer any penalty because of the tolerance regime applied by my Department. Indeed breaches of cross-compliance in 2006 resulted in some €722,296.31 being withheld from farmers by way of penalties representing 0.06% of Ireland's National ceiling of €1.3billion. The vast bulk of penalties applied (1,239 farmers) were for breaches of the rules relating to the identification and registration of bovine animals i.e. tagging and registration of births, movements and deaths representing 78.72% of all breaches found. The requirements for the timely tagging and registration of cattle and for the notification of movements and deaths have been in place in Ireland for over 10 years.

My Department is in regular contact with the European Commission with a view to simplification of Single Payment Scheme requirements with particular reference to the arrangements for cross-compliance inspections. I have also raised the matter on a number of occasions with Commissioner Fischer Boel. The European Commission is currently undertaking a full review of the cross-compliance regime and the results of that review will be presented to the Council of Ministers during April. I have personally met with my German and French counterparts with a view to emphasising the importance of achieving progress on the simplification issue during the German presidency. In tandem with this my Department is carrying out a full review of the inspection arrangements for the Single Payment Scheme with a view to simplification of the arrangements (including paperwork) where possible while, at the same time, ensuring compliance with the regulatory requirements. The review of the forms together with the outcome of the Commission's review of the cross-compliance arrangements generally, will be fully discussed with the farming organisations before the inspections for 2007 get underway.

In so far as the Department's inspection checklist on cross compliance is concerned, this is an internal checklist used for the 2006 inspections which was made available to the farming organisations and the farmers being inspected. The various forms used during cross-compliance inspections are also available on my Department's website www.agriculture.gov.ie. These forms are currently being reviewed as part of the full review my Department is carrying out on the inspection arrangements for the Single Payment Scheme for 2007.

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 applying 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.