Vol. 475 No. 7
238 Mr. E. Ryan asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Forestry the number of registered organic farmers in the country; the recognition they receive from his Department; and the number of these farms inspected over the past year to ensure that they are within the criteria laid down by his Department for organic farms. [5787/97]
Since the introduction on 1 January 1993 of EEC Regulation No. 2092/91, governing the organic production of agricultural products, 760 farmers notified my Department of their intention to commence or to continue as organic operators.
As provided for in Regulation 2092/91, my Department has approved three private organic inspection bodies: IOFGA, Organic Trust Ltd. and Demeter Standards Ltd. to carry out necessary inspections under the regulation. Under this regulation organic operators must submit their operations to annual inspection. On the basis of information furnished to my Department by the inspection bodies there were approximately 600 active organic farmers in Ireland at the end of 1996.
My Department, when possible, sends a representative to certification panel meetings of the private bodies, where the findings of the inspections are discussed and decisions regarding status of operations are taken.
As the Deputy may be aware the rural environment protection scheme offers attractive financial incentives to farmers who continue or who convert to an organic farming system. At present many organic farmers are following five year organic REPS plans. To date 164 farmers have received payment under the REPS organic farming supplementary measure. Payments under this measure fall due at the end of a recording year i.e. after a year in the scheme has been completed. Part of the process of assessing entitlement to REPS payment, including organic payment, involves a system of compliance checking on scheme participant farms to ensure that the planned undertakings have been satisfactorily carried out.
