Vol. 512 No. 5
41 Mr. J. O'Keeffe asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Rural Development the number of farmers penalised in 1998 and to date in 1999 for failure to comply with all the terms and conditions of EU funded or other schemes; the amount of monetary penalties involved; and if he has satisfied himself that there are fair and adequate procedures in place before these penalties are imposed on farmers. [26332/99]
In the time available it has not been possible to collate the data requested by the Deputy, because of the very large number of schemes operated by my Department.
I will arrange to have the information relating to our main schemes sent to the Deputy as soon as possible. The level of penalties applied is relatively small in comparison to the number of applications and many of the penalties arise because of late submission of applications.
As regards fair and adequate procedures, I am generally satisfied that penalties are applied only in circumstances that warrant sanction.
However, as I indicated in my reply to an earlier question, the establishment of an independent unit to adjudicate on appeals by farmers is under active consideration.
