Written answers

Thursday, 12 December 2013

Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine

Agriculture Schemes Payments

Photo of Seán KyneSeán Kyne (Galway West, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

20. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine when the mapping of forage hectares will be completed for Irish farmers; his views that these annual mapping issues are causing a lot of concern to farmers; if he acknowledges that some lands in REP scheme or agri-environmental schemes over a number of years are liable to become overgrown and lead to penalties under overdeclaration rules; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [53140/13]

Photo of Simon CoveneySimon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Payments to farmers under EU Direct Schemes amount to over €1.5 billion annually. Approximately 130,000 farmers benefit from these schemes and these supports will continue under the next CAP, recently agreed by the Irish Presidency. Financial controls are operated by the EU Commission on the management of EU funded schemes paid out by Member States as part of the Clearance of Accounts process. If the Commission believes the scheme does not fully adhere to EU regulations, a financial correction can be imposed. The EU Commission has been auditing schemes in operation in Ireland over a five year period and has concluded that some farmers have declared land eligible and sought payment on land that contains ineligible features such as houses, farmyards, roads, rivers, scrub etc. This has occurred under all land based schemes including REPS. Cognisance is, however, taken where lower stocking rates apply under certain agri-environmental schemes.

At a meeting between the Department of Agriculture and the EU Commission in July 2013, the Commission indicated that this practice of claiming on ineligible features has to be regularised, to avoid Ireland being significantly penalised by the Commission. In order to avoid a significant financial correction, which would see the overall Single Farm Payment Scheme reduced for all farmers, including those fully compliant with the scheme, a review of land eligibility has been undertaken by my Department, this review will be completed within the next few weeks.

As part of that review, 950,000 eligible land parcels (belonging to approximately 130,000 farmers) are being examined; ineligible features have been identified in some cases (a minority) in the context of the 2013 payment scheme. In the vast majority of cases, it does not appear that farmers have over-claimed and most farmers have applied the rules correctly. While it is not possible until the review is complete to provide final figures on over-claims by farmers, it is clear that over 90% of the farmers reviewed to date have either no reduction or a very minimal reduction.

As the review progresses, letters are issuing to farmers indicating that there is a discrepancy with regard to their eligible land declared and the farmers in question are being offered a desk review (within the Department) of the decision in the first instance and an independent review if they are not satisfied with that outcome. An independent review panel is being chaired by Padraig Gibbons and will deal with appeals in an efficient and timely manner to avoid any undue delay to the processing of payments.

It is important to note that while this review is underway, payments to farmers under the Single Farm Payment Scheme and the Disadvantaged Areas Scheme are on track and on a par with 2012. A 50% advance payment issued under the Single Farm Payment scheme to farmers in October and 120,000 farmers were paid their SPS balancing payment this week amounting to €560m. To date, almost €1.4 billion has been paid to farmers under the two schemes.

Comments

No comments

Log in or join to post a public comment.