Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 31 March 2015
317. Deputy Éamon Ó Cuív asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of appeals in regard to the overdeclaration of land under the single payment and the disadvantaged areas payment which are not yet finalised; the reason for this delay; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12886/15]
View answerTo date, some 10,916 appeals have been received, of which 9,237 have been finalised or in the final stages of processing. In addition, 1,679 cases are in the process of either ground verification visits or administrative validation. To date, 433 cases have been referred to the LPIS Appeals Committee for consideration.
My Department is bound, under EU Regulations, to maintain the accuracy of the Land Parcel Identification System (LPIS) which underpins the direct payments. At the start of each year, my Department issues colour maps of all land parcels declared by farmers in the previous year together with a covering letter. In that letter, farmers are informed of the need to carefully examine each map carefully and to identify and exclude from their application all unfarmed land, ineligible features such as buildings, farmyards, scrub, roadways, forests, lakes etc. included in the land parcels. There is, therefore, an onus on all farmers to ensure that the area of land declared by them as eligible for payment under the Direct Payment Schemes is accurate. They are also given the means to do so by making the ortho-photos available to them on an annual basis. These requirements are also made clear in the Terms and Conditions of the Schemes, which accompanies the pre-printed application form issued to all farmers.
In the letters which issue where ineligible areas have been identified, considerable detail regarding the issues and maps to advise of the particular over-claims, are provided, in addition to which farmers are also informed of the appeals process, should they disagree with my Department’s findings. The appeals process I have introduced is both robust and comprehensive; in the first instance, applicants are entitled to have their case reviewed by submitting their appeal on the form provided by my Department. If they are not satisfied with the outcome of the review, they can appeal their case to the independently-chaired Land Eligibility Appeals Committee.
