Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Independent)
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142. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine his views that by failing to inform commonage land owners of the presence of his Department's inspectors on their lands, his Department has not accorded these owners the right to refuse inspectors permission to enter onto their lands; his further views that this is non-discriminatory pursuant to the European Union direct payment scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12499/15]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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In general, the inspections of commonages are undertaken as part of a ground eligibility inspection where the applicant selected for inspection has claimed commonage land or as part of a LPIS Review. If a commonage is being inspected as part of ground eligibility inspection, the applicant is informed in advance in the normal manner.

In addition to carrying out eligibility inspections, my Department is also obliged to carry out assessments of the ortho-imagery held in the Land Parcel Identification System (LPIS) database. The objective of this review is to ensure that all ineligible land and features are excluded from the land declared by applicants under the various Direct Payment Schemes. The process is normally carried out by visually assessing the latest ortho-images to identify ineligible areas and features in the land parcels declared by farmers. In some cases, however, it is necessary to carry out a verification check on the parcel or parcels under assessment. Such verification visits are not notified in advance to commonage claimants but all claimants are informed of the findings of the verification checks.