Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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400. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will provide an update in respect of the 11,000 appeals that are presently being heard by his Department; his views that these farmers find themselves in an ominous position, in that they do not know what land to include in their 2015 claim; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20252/15]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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To date, some 10,921 appeals have been received, of which 9,342 have been finalised or in the final stages of processing. In addition, 1,038 cases are in the process of either ground verification visits or administrative validation. To date, 541 cases have been referred to the Land Parcel Identification System (LPIS) Appeals Committee for consideration.

My Department is bound, under EU Regulations, to maintain the accuracy of the Land Parcel Identification System which underpins the direct payments. At the start of each year, my Department issues colour maps of all land parcels declared by farmers in the previous year together with a covering letter. In that letter, farmers are informed of the need to examine each map carefully and to identify and exclude from their application all unfarmed land, ineligible features such as buildings, farmyards, scrub, roadways, forests, lakes etc. included in the land parcels. There is, therefore, an onus on all farmers to ensure that the area of land declared by them as eligible for payment under the Direct Payment Schemes is accurate. They are also given the means to do so by making the ortho-photos available to them on an annual basis. These requirements are also made clear in the Terms and Conditions of the Schemes, which accompanies the pre-printed application form issued to all farmers.

In the letters, which issue where ineligible areas have been identified, considerable detail regarding the issues and maps to advise of the particular over-claims are provided. In addition to this information, farmers are also informed of the appeals process, should they disagree with my Department’s findings. The appeals process I have introduced is both robust and comprehensive. In the first instance, applicants are entitled to have their case reviewed by submitting their appeal on the form provided by my Department and should it be the case they are not satisfied with the outcome of the review, they can appeal their case to the independently-chaired Land Eligibility Appeals Committee.