James Bannon (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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Question 446: To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food the action she will take to relieve the growing mountain of red tape and bureaucracy which is driving farmers off the land; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [16498/07]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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I am fully committed to reducing unnecessary bureaucracy in the administration of the Common Agriculture Policy and one of my main priorities is to pursue simplification of procedures at farm level. The adoption by Ireland of full decoupling under the Single Payment Scheme, thereby replacing six EU subsidy schemes each with complex application, qualification and implementation procedures, demonstrates in a very tangible manner the extent of my commitment. I have also, on a continuous basis, applied the benefits of IT, wherever possible, in the interests of quality customer service.

I fully support the EU Commission's ongoing efforts to reduce the regulatory burden of administration on producers, food processors and national administrations and I am contributing actively to this process. I have raised this issue on numerous occasions with the Commissioner and, indeed, with the Presidency which has given the highest priority to the process of simplification and the reduction of the bureaucratic burden of the CAP. Among my main concerns is the lack of advance notification of inspections under the Single Payment Scheme and the level of sanctions to be applied under cross-compliance, including the extent of tolerance applied where non-compliance is inadvertent or negligible. I have made these points on a number of occasions in the Council of Ministers and urged the Commissioner to present proposals to improve the current situation as quickly as possible. I have also raised these matters with a number of EU Ministerial colleagues in order to garner support for my position.

In this connection, I very much welcome the report on cross-compliance presented by Commissioner Fischer Boel to the Council of Ministers and the conclusions agreed at the Council on 11/12 June. I particularly welcome the Commission's proposals to introduce tolerances for minor infringements, to fix a threshold below which financial penalties will not be applied, to use the results of existing controls to rationalise the system of inspections, to amend the 10-month rule and to examine ways of improving the practicability and coherence of the rules on control rates and advance notice of inspections.

I will continue to pursue these issues actively with the Commission and other Member States.