Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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847. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of inspections carried out by inspectors from his Department on horticultural businesses by functional area in each of the past five years in tabular form. [46116/21]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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The Department is involved in a range of inspections on horticultural businesses required by specific legislation, to facilitate trade and for verification of compliance with Schemes.

These include:

1. Food Safety Inspections necessitated by Regulation (EU) 2017/625 (Official Controls Regulation and carried out under S.I. 22 of 2020 (Food & Feed Hygiene regulations 2020).

2. Inspections to facilitate growers’ payments under Article 25 of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2017/891 DAFM verify Producer Organisations’ Operational Programmes in part through on the spot checks of PO members’ farms.

3. Inspections to verify investments under the Scheme of Investment Aid for the Development of the Commercial Horticulture Sector.

4. Inspections of Horticulture producers of regulated plants and plans products are required under the provisions of the EU Plant health Regulation (EU) 2016/2031 and the Official Controls Regulation (EU) 2017/625.

5. Finally, inspection of Horticulture Business are required to facilitate the export certification process and ensure compliance with the Phytosanitary requirements of the Third Country.

Numbers of inspections in each of the past five years are set out in the following table.