Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 28 January 2014
641. Deputy Martin Ferris asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will provide, in tabular form, the number of farmers by county who are holders of up to 5 ha but are affected by land eligibility imaging issues and, therefore, subject to clawback of single farm payments. [4269/14]
View answer642. Deputy Martin Ferris asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will provide, in tabular form, the number of farmers by county who are holders of between 5 ha and 10 ha but are affected by land eligibility imaging issues and, therefore, subject to clawback of single farm payments. [4270/14]
View answer643. Deputy Martin Ferris asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will provide, in tabular form, the number of farmers by county who are holders of between 10 ha and 15 ha but are affected by land eligibility imaging issues and, therefore, subject to clawback of single farm payments. [4271/14]
View answer644. Deputy Martin Ferris asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will provide, in tabular form, the number of farmers by county who are holders of between 15 ha and 20 ha but are affected by land eligibility imaging issues and, therefore, subject to clawback of single farm payments. [4272/14]
View answer645. Deputy Martin Ferris asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the percentage of each group that has been subjected to a clawback of 3% or less. [4273/14]
View answer646. Deputy Martin Ferris asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the percentage of each group that has been subjected to a clawback of more than 20%. [4274/14]
View answer647. Deputy Martin Ferris asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of appeals against a clawback of single farm payment, due to land eligibility issues, that have been received by his Department. [4275/14]
View answer648. Deputy Martin Ferris asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the amount of money that has been clawed back from farmers as a result of land eligibility issues as a result of new imaging technology in use by his Department. [4276/14]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 641 to 648, inclusive, together.
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. All of the lands declared by farmers must be eligible if these lands benefit from payment under one or more of these Schemes. My Department is currently carrying out a comprehensive exercise by excluding ineligible features, such as houses, roads, scrub, rivers, etc. in land parcels declared by farmers. In the vast majority of cases, the exclusion has no impact on payments as the farmers in question have taken a prudent approach and reduced the declared area to take account of the ineligible feature. No cutbacks have been applied on eligible land.
As the Review exercise remains ongoing at present, it is not feasible to collate the data sought by the Deputy. However, data is being extracted and compiled and will be provided directly to the Deputy as soon as possible.
