Vol. 502 No. 3
259 Mr. Yates asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food the procedures in place in relation to officers of his Department carrying out inspections on farmers' quotas; if his attention has been drawn to complaints in this regard (details supplied); and the proposals, if any, he has to streamline this procedure. [8501/99]
The position is that during the course of a general examination of the arrangements in place for the notification of transfer and lease of ewe quota rights to my Department certain inconsistencies came to light. When these inconsistencies were further examined it became apparent that the possibility of irregularities could not be discounted. As a result it was necessary for inspectors from my Department to carry out on-the-spot inspections in County Wexford which included interviewing ewe premium applicants about their ewe premium and ewe quota transactions. A number of inspections were carried out recently and irregularities have been identified.
