Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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643. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine his views on reports that the new system for land digitisation replacing Ordnance Survey maps is causing huge irregularities and in some cases errors for engineers carrying out their work; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [34655/16]

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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The Land Parcel Identification System (LPIS) is the Department's spatial database that underpins area based payments to over 125,000 farmers. This system holds records (digitised parcels) for over 1 million land parcels. The system as operated by this Department is not a replacement for Ordnance Survey maps, but works in a complementary fashion. It is designed and operated to ensure payments are made in a timely manner to farmers while also ensuring robust controls are in place to ensure the validity of payments.

Ordnance Survey maps at a scale similar to the LPIS (1:5000) typically show each individual field on the farm as a distinct parcel. The LPIS can have multiple fields in a single parcel and this can vary depending on the specific schemes that farmers apply for. While both datasets are similar they have been designed with different end uses in mind.

While the Department constantly strives to update and improve all data that we use, there is no new system for land digitisation in place.