I am delighted to have the opportunity to make the House aware of a problem that has arisen in the Department of Agri culture, Food and Rural Development with regard to area aid. This relates particularly to the 5,000 letters which have been issued from the area aid office in Hume House over the past week.
A great number of farmers cannot understand why they got the letter in the first place. One farmer told me that a few years ago he got paid on the same land without any problems. From the contents of the circular it appears eligibility for area aid is in doubt in 5,000 cases. The inference in the letter is that under eligibility for payment under the arable aid scheme there is at least a doubt cast in the case of 5,000 farmers. I am sorry the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Rural Development is not here this evening because this is quite a technical matter and there are a number of technical questions which I wanted to ask him.
A great many farmers are terribly upset about this. As I said, some farmers have got paid on the same land for the same scheme previously. One farmer, who grows a substantial amount of corn on conacre, has been told that the land on which the crop was grown was not eligible. He had no way of knowing that when he took the land.
In many cases of which I have personal knowledge, the letters went out to people who had done nothing more than transfer eligibility from one part of the farm to another. This is allowed for every year and there is a transfer document for doing that. I have a sneaking suspicion that what has happened is that the Department, through an oversight or otherwise, has not seen those transfer documents because I know of at least nine or ten cases where the people who got one of those letters had the eligibility transferred to the land in question and everything was in order.
In fairness to the staff at the area aid unit, over the years they have been most helpful and courteous. The questions I want to put, through the Minister, to the staff are the following. When farmers must answer the questions concerned to give proof, what sort of proof are they looking for? What must a farmer do to prove that the land in question had eligibility, which means, as the Minister of State will be aware, that corn was grown on it in 1988, 1989, 1990 and 1991? Under those conditions, what proof is needed which will be acceptable to the area aid unit? Would it involve getting a letter from a contractor stating that he or she ploughed and sowed it, from an auctioneer stating he or she had it rented as conacre for sowing or from a contractor who had a combine harvester? I hope the script they gave the Minister of State, Deputy Moffatt, will outline those details because that is what farmers want to know.
It is obviously difficult to prove the purpose to which the land was put during those years. I understand there is no database containing details of the acres under corn in the years concerned. Many of the 5,000 concerned have their answers ready and could answer quickly, but at the same time I want the Minister of State to outline what those farmers must do to prove eligibility.