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Agriculture Schemes Payments

Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 18 December 2013

Wednesday, 18 December 2013

Questions (192)

Brendan Griffin

Question:

192. Deputy Brendan Griffin asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will review the practice of backdating penalties on the single farm payment scheme in view of the impact these excessive penalties are having on farmers' payments after a very difficult period for the farming industry; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [54512/13]

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Written answers

The Deputy will be fully aware of the value of the EU funded Direct Payment Schemes to Ireland. Each year farmers in Ireland benefit from funding of over €1.5 billion under Schemes such as the Single Farm Payment Scheme, the Disadvantaged Areas Scheme, the Agri-Environment Schemes, etc. This comprises the entire net income of many thousands of Irish farmers.

The European Commission has an obligation to ensure that Member States manage and use the EU funding granted to them in accordance with the very restrictive provisions governing the Schemes and general financial provisions. Under the Common Agricultural Policy, this is done by way of a Clearance of Accounts procedure. This is a formal process and both the Commission and Member States are obliged to adhere to the requirements laid down in the legislation.

In the case of Ireland, the Clearance procedure is currently covering five financial years involving the 2008 to 2012 scheme-years. The total amount of EU funds under audit scrutiny in the process is approximately €7.5 billion. I can assure the Deputy that every effort is being made to ensure that Ireland’s case and the position of Irish farmers is strenuously argued during the process.

I can also reassure the Deputy that every effort is being made to protect the interests of all Irish farmers during the process including the interest of that majority of farmers, who were fully compliant in the declarations they made on an annual basis under the Schemes. This is an extremely serious process. During the years 2002 to 2012, the Commission imposed financial corrections amounting to almost €5 billion on Member States. Ireland’s share of this amounted 0.5% of the total amount corrected – one of the lowest percentages among Member States.

Under the EU Regulations, the Commission has to right to impose a flat-rate correction of 2%, 5%, 10%, or greater, depending of its assessment of the risk to the EU Fund involved. A 2% correction on the 2008 – 2012 scheme years would mean a loss of €150m in funding to Ireland. On the other hand, the level of the correction can be based on the assessed risk if the Member State can establish the risk and the Commission are satisfied with the calculations. In such circumstances, if the risk is dealt with by the Member State by collecting the debts arising from the over-payments, the amounts collected is taken into account by the Commission in its final assessment. This is the approach Ireland is following.

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