Denis Naughten (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Independent)
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23. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will publish the inspection penalty rate for randomised on-farm inspections; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [52932/13]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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My Department, in the context of delivering the Single Payment Scheme, Disadvantaged Areas’ Scheme and other area related schemes, is required to carry out an annual round of inspections covering both the eligibility of the land declared to draw down payments and also cross compliance aspects, to ensure adherence with EU regulatory requirements in the areas of public, animal and plant health, environment and animal welfare and ensuring that the farm is maintained in good agricultural and environmental condition. These inspections are a necessary requirement to drawn down approximately €1.7 billion of EU funds annually and to avoid EU disallowances, My Department must therefore ensure that these inspections are conducted in full accordance with the legislative provisions.

Land eligibility checks must be carried out on at least 5% of applicants. These checks are carried out to verify that the actual area claimed in the application form corresponds to the area farmed by the farmer and to ensure that any ineligible land or features are not included for aid purposes. My Department has made every effort to respond to concerns about the impact of on-the-ground inspections on farmers and arising from this around 75% of these inspections are initially carried out without the need for a farm visit, as the information needed is acquired using the technique of remote sensing via satellite.

The rate of inspections for cross-compliance is 1% of applicants to whom the Statutory Management Requirements (SMRs) and Good Agricultural Condition (GAEC) apply. However, 3% of farmers must be inspected under the bovine identification and registration requirements, while 3% of sheep/goat farmers must be inspected covering 5% of the flock. In addition, since 2010, my Department undertakes Nitrates inspections under the Good Agricultural Practice (GAP) regulations on behalf of the Department of Environment, Community and Local Government, on an inter-agency basis.

The governing EU regulations require that the selection of cases for inspection is undertaken by means of a risk analysis process. The cases are selected on the basis of relevant risk criteria, as well as on a random basis. Furthermore, in order to ensure the continued effectiveness of the risk analysis process, my Department is required to assess and update the process on an annual basis.

The following table details the number of holdings selected on a random basis for land eligibility and cross compliance inspections in 2012 under the Single Payment and Disadvantaged Areas’ Schemes and for the Nitrates GAP inspections and the number of those cases that incurred a financial penalty following these inspections.