Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail)
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193. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will address a matter regarding the number of farmers whose BPS and ANC payments are held up by rigorous overzealous mapping being carried out by a company (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [48614/18]

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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Under the terms and conditions of the direct payment schemes, farmers are obliged to declare only eligible land when making their annual applications, and are to exclude ineligible features such as roads, buildings, farmyards, dense scrub, etc. These claims are then recorded on the Department’s Land Parcel Identification System (LPIS).

The LPIS currently records some 1 million individual land parcels and fulfils two primary functions:

- the identification and positioning of agricultural and forestry parcels, and

- the determination of the eligible area of land parcels

Given the importance of the LPIS database in underpinning direct payments worth in excess of €1.5 billion annually, my Department is obliged under EU Regulations to ensure its accuracy.

Consequently, all applications for direct payment are subject to robust administrative and eligibility checks prior to payment, the main element of which is an area assessment.  Such checks are required to protect the annual drawdown of the EU funds and to avoid disallowances.  Only valid applications that fully comply with the requirements of the EU legislation can be paid. 

While the updating of the LPIS database is contracted to an external company, my Department retains overall responsibility for the updates made to the system.  These updates are carried out by the external company as directed by my Department and in accordance with the obligations and requirements as set out under EU Regulations. 

Under the 2018 Basic Payment Scheme over 118,000 farmers have now been paid a total of more than €776m, and preparations are underway for the issuing on balancing payments from the start of December.  Under the 2018 Areas of Natural Constraint Scheme, almost €212m has now been paid to over 87,000 farmers.