Eamon Gilmore
Question:50 Mr. Gilmore asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food her approach to inspections for cross compliance; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [24487/04]
View answerWednesday, 13 October 2004
Questions (50)
Written answers
To be eligible for the single payment scheme, farmers are required to be compliant with various environmental and other standards and this is termed cross compliance. It will involve two key elements as follows: a requirement for farmers to comply with a number of statutory management requirements, SMRs, set down in EU legislation on the environment, food safety animal health, welfare, and plant health; a requirement to maintain the farm in good agricultural and environmental condition. In addition, there will be an obligation on the member state to ensure that there is no significant reduction in the amount of land under permanent pasture by reference to the total area under permanent pasture in 2003.
In general the rate of inspection required for cross compliance is 1% of those farmers to whom the relevant statutory management requirements or good agricultural and environmental conditions apply. However, at least 5% of producers must be inspected under the animal identification and registration requirements as this is the level prescribed under the relevant regulations.
In addition to cross compliance checks, it is a requirement to carry out standard eligibility checks to ensure there are no overlapping claims, no duplicate claims and so forth. At least 5% of applicants will receive area declaration checks. The requirements for checking eligibility of the area declared are similar to the arrangements currently in place for area aid inspections.
My Department, as the paying agency, will have primary responsibility to ensure the required level of cross compliance inspection is carried out and for fixing any sanctions to be applied. Every effort will be made to minimise the number of inspection visits and to move towards a situation where, in most cases, all eligibility and cross compliance checks will be carried out during a single farm visit. The Department is in the process of preparing a consultation document on cross compliance and this document will be discussed with the farming organisations and other interested parties over the coming weeks.
When those consultations are complete the Department will publish an information booklet on cross compliance. The booklet will set out exactly what standards farmers will be required to meet to comply with the various conditions.