Written answers

Tuesday, 24 April 2007

Department of Agriculture and Food

Farm Inspections

11:00 pm

Paudge Connolly (Cavan-Monaghan, Independent)
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Question 760: To ask the Minister for Agriculture and Food if, in relation to on-farm inspections, she will ensure that 14 days advance notice of inspections for all schemes will be given; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [14518/07]

Photo of Mary CoughlanMary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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The position is that the policy towards on-farm inspection has been to give advance notification of up to 48 hours in all cases. This policy of systematic preannouncement 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.

The EU regulations governing the Single Payment Scheme would allow my Department to give prenotification 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 believes that prenotification 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 proportion of inspections without prior notification and this is what was done in 2006.

The Commission report documenting a review on cross-compliance was formally presented to the Council of Ministers meeting on 16th April. It is the intention of the Presidency to have the report examined at Special Agriculture Committee level with decisions to be taken by Ministers in June. The Commission's report makes proposals for changes in a number of areas including advance notice of checks up to 14 days "provided the purpose of the checks is not jeopardised". However, the report says that controls on the identification and registration of animals (for eligibility or for cross compliance) and on compliance with feed and food law, animal health and animal welfare rules will remain in principle unannounced due to the mandatory requirements of EU legislation.

At the Council of Ministers I voiced my concern in the strongest terms about the whole question of unannounced inspections and the Commission's proposals that controls on identification and registration of animals, compliance with feed and food law and animal health and welfare will remain "in principle" unannounced. I fully accept that it is a critical element of any control system that the inspection visit is implemented in such a way that its purpose is not jeopardised. In my view however, systematic unannounced inspections are not necessary to achieve this objective but add significantly to cost and inefficiencies at a time when simplification is the aspiration.

I accept that there should always be a possibility of carrying out some unannounced controls and historically Ireland has always adopted this approach where it was deemed necessary. I therefore asked the Commission to re-consider its proposals for systematic unannounced inspections.

I will continue to press this point in the CAP simplification process.

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