My Department has contracted, through open tendering procedures, Mallons Technology Ltd. and the ICON group (Remote Sensing inspection cases) to provide digitising updates of the Land Parcel Identification System (LPIS). This digitising work must be carried out to meet my Department’s deadlines and to the standard required both by my Department and the European Union’s IACS. Under IACS, the payments made together with the operation of the Land Parcel Identification System in Ireland are subject to frequent and rigorous audits by the European Commission and the European Court of Auditors.
As part of the normal application process, farmers are required to submit maps outlining any ineligible features in their land parcels. I can confirm that in respect of the 2012 scheme-year, 3,156 of the 12,854 Galway herds required digitising and this process was completed in early September. Some applicants have queried the outcome of the digitising and these cases are processed as they arise. The findings of eligibility inspections where they differ from the declarations made by individual applicants continue to be re-digitised on the LPIS database.
