Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein)
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53. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the objective of his Department in performing a new round of land eligibility inspections with stricter criteria which may result in hill farmers receiving reduced direct payments; the details of the new criteria; and the implications of each. [27958/17]

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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The EU regulations governing the various area-based Direct Payment Schemes and Rural Development measures require my Department to carry out on-the-spot inspections annually to ensure compliance with the eligibility requirements, including land eligibility, of the various schemes. In the case of land eligibility inspections, the requirement is for 5% of beneficiaries to be inspected and such inspections involve examination of all land types declared by an applicant, including “hill land”. There has been no change to the inspection requirement as prescribed in the relevant EU legislation.

In 2015 my Department published the "A Guide to Land Eligibility" booklet, which issued to all farmers, detailing all of the requirements that applicants must comply with to ensure that their land is and remains eligible for payment. 

The land declared by an applicant under the various EU funded area-based schemes must be eligible agricultural land and must also have an agricultural activity carried out on the land.

The governing EU regulations set out a range of actions to define agricultural activity and maintaining it in a state suitable for grazing and cultivation. In Ireland we chose from the legal framework to go with a characteristics-based approach.  Therefore an applicant is free to choose the method which best suits their farming operation to ensure that the land is suitable for grazing or cultivation. Furthermore we also exercised the option to deem what is known as "Permanent Grassland Established Local Practices" (PGELP) land eligible and hence the definition of permanent pasture that is implemented in Ireland allows for the wide variety of grazing ground that exists in the State.

The main guiding principles for determining land as eligible include:The land is agricultural;

- The land is not abandoned;

- Ineligible features, e.g. buildings, areas of water bodies, scrub, rock, have been excluded from the area declared;

- There must be evidence that the applicant is maintaining the agricultural area.

With specific regard to Natura land, the “Guide to Land Eligibility” booklet details the provision set out in EU regulations where land that was eligible in the past and has now become ineligible, due to compliance with the requirements of the birds and habitats directives, can be considered for payment subject to specific criteria being met.  However this provision can only apply where the farmer is still farming the land and the land is fundamentally an agricultural area.

There has been no change to the criteria being used to establish land eligibility since the publication of the 2015 Guide to Land Eligibility.