Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of farmers here who have been inspected on more than one occasion by officials from his Department in respect of payments of less than €1000 in the years 2011 and 2012; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42822/12]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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My Department, in the context of delivering the Direct Payments Schemes, is required to carry out annual inspections covering land eligibility and cross compliance to ensure compliance with EU regulatory requirements. Eligibility checks must be carried out on 5% of applicants, to verify that the actual area claimed in the application form corresponds to the area farmed and to ensure that any ineligible land/features are deducted. Up to two-thirds of these inspections are carried out in the first instance without a farm visit, as the information is verified using the technique of remote sensing via satellite.

The rate of inspection for cross compliance is 1% of applicants to whom the Statutory Management Requirements (SMRs) and Good Agricultural and Environmental Condition (GAEC) applies. However 3% of farmers must be inspected under the bovine identification and registration requirements, while 3% of sheep/goat owners must be inspected covering 5% of the flock.

In 2010, in an effort to minimise duplication of farm inspections between the two Departments, my Department agreed to carry out some 1,600 nitrates inspections under the Good Agricultural Practice (GAP) regulations on behalf of the Department of Environment, Community and Local Government. This arrangement was retained for both 2011 and 2012. My Department is committed to ensuring the maximum level of integration of inspections and will continue to review inspection programmes in all areas with the aim of increasing integration where this is a feasible option.

In relation to the 2011 Single Payment Scheme and Disadvantaged Areas Scheme (the two main direct payment schemes, with annual expenditure in excess of €1.5bn), a total of 9 farmers, whose payment was less than €1,000, were subject to more than one inspection type. This equates to 0.09% of the total number of farmers in receipt of payments of less than €1,000 under these 2011 schemes. As payments and inspections processes in respect of the 2012 Schemes are ongoing, it is not possible to provide the information on the current year at this time.