Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 22 September 2015
552. Deputy Denis Naughten asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will indicate the current contract to provide digitised maps to farmers in conjunction with their basic payment application form; the period of the contract and the frequency with which the satellite map must be updated over the period of the contract; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32153/15]
View answerAs part of the underpinning of the area based support measures, which deliver some €1.6bn annually to Irish farmers, my Department is required, under relevant EU legislation, to maintain a detailed database of individual land parcels. This is known as the Land Parcel Identification System (LPIS) which currently records, electronically, some 1.3 million individual parcels and which is required to be kept updated, based in particular on individual claims submitted from farmers and the results of inspection activity carried out by my Department for verification purposes. Because of the database’s highly specialist nature, it has been necessary, since the inception of area based direct payments which have and will continue to be critical to the development of the Irish agriculture and food industries, to engage an external contractor to assist in this process. The Department’s systems in this critical area must meet demanding EU and national audit requirements. The LPIS is updated by two companies contracted to carry out updates based on maps submitted annually by applicants under the Basic Payment Scheme, land eligibility inspections and various reviews carried out by my Department. The contracts were awarded to the Mallon Technology Ltd and the ICON Group Ltd on the basis of a competitive tendering process in accordance with standard EU Public Procurement Procedures. These contracts are in place for a period of three years and commenced in 2013.
Over 80% of land eligibility inspections, which are required to be at the level of 5% of all applicants, are carried out using satellite imagery. That imagery is updated annually by the European Commission.
