Skip to main content
Normal View

Agriculture Schemes

Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 19 January 2022

Wednesday, 19 January 2022

Questions (1952, 1953, 1954)

Jennifer Whitmore

Question:

1952. Deputy Jennifer Whitmore asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of landowners found to have been ineligible for funding under an area-based scheme in each of the past ten years due to an incidence of illegal burning in the previous period by county in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [63086/21]

View answer

Jennifer Whitmore

Question:

1953. Deputy Jennifer Whitmore asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of inspections, ground and satellite, undertaken by his Department to identify illegal burns by county; the number of illegal burns successfully identified as a result; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [63087/21]

View answer

Jennifer Whitmore

Question:

1954. Deputy Jennifer Whitmore asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of times land declared as eligible on a basic payment scheme application was identified as having been burned during the closed season; the number of successful appeals made against this; the criteria by which an appeal is judged; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [63088/21]

View answer

Written answers

I propose to take Questions Nos. 1952, 1953 and 1954 together.

Burning of land between 1st March and 31st August (which is the closed season) in any year is prohibited under section 40 of the Wildlife Act, 1976 as amended by the Wildlife (Amendment) Act 2000.  

It is specified in the Basic Payment Scheme Terms and Conditions that land burnt during the closed season in any given year, is not eligible for the purpose of payment under the Basic Payment Scheme. 

As required under EU Regulations, all applications under the Basic Payment Scheme are subject to robust administrative checks prior to payment. Only valid applications under the Basic Payment Scheme that fully comply with the requirements of the EU legislation are paid.

 As part of these required administrative checks, my Department assesses satellite imagery from a range of sources, including FIRMS1, EFFIS2 , along with a manual review by operators of Sentinel3 imagery, to identify lands burned during the closed period.  Any area within a land parcel that is identified as being subject to burning in this time period, is deemed ineligible and as a result the eligible area of the parcel is reduced.  The applicant is notified of this reduction and their right of review to this reduction.  Follow-up field visits are undertaken by inspecting officers from my Department where required.  In addition, my Department regularly issues advice and reminders directly to farmers on the negative consequences of burning land illegally including that it may give rise to an overclaim for the farmer.

Such an overclaim will result in a reduction in the eligible area. In addition, as required under the EU Regulations,  further administrative penalties are applied where the area over-claimed is greater than 3% of the area declared or more than 2 hectares.  Full details of how the administrative penalties are calculated can be found in the published Helpsheet and Terms and Conditions 

assets.gov.ie/123734/290d843d-906d-438a-854e-00eec09fee34.pdf  

The collection of statistics in relation to burnt land under the Basic Payment Scheme commenced in 2017 and are set out in table 1 below. It should be noted that these applicant's payments in respect of other area-based schemes (e.g. Areas facing Natural Constraints, GLAS, Organics) may also have been impacted by the reduction in the eligible area. It is important to note that in certain cases the land subject to burning has no impact on the applicant's payments.

  Table 1: 

County  

   *2017               

   *2018              

   *2019              

*2020               

   *2021          

Carlow

 

 

 

52

54

Cavan

 

 

 

7

2

Clare

 

 

1

3

 

Cork

3

2

3

34

48

Donegal

23

 

22

3

10

Dublin

13

 

12

 

 

Galway

39

 

12

25

29

Kerry

17

 

40

71

41

Kildare

 

1

 

2

 

Kilkenny

 

 

 

 

6

Laois

 

 

 

 

31

Leitrim

4

 

 

3

 

Limerick

 

 

15

 

 

Longford

 

 

2

1

 

Louth

 

 

 

21

 

Mayo

44

 

257

73

41

Meath

 

 

 

 

 

Monaghan

 

 

 

 

1

Offaly

 

 

1

 

 

Roscommon

 

 

 

17

 

Sligo

29

 

 

12

 

Tipperary

2

 

42

1

2

Waterford

 

 

 

 

21

Westmeath

 

 

 

 

 

Wexford

 

 

 

28

22

Wicklow

5

 

1

32

27

Total

179

3

408

385

335

- 2017 includes 62 applications where there was no impact on the BPS payment.

- 2018 includes 2 applications where there was no impact on the BPS payment.

- 2019 includes 293 applications where there was no impact on the BPS payment. 

- 2020 includes 209 applications where there was no impact on the BPS payment.

- 2021 includes 169 applications where there was no impact on the BPS payment. 

Of these 335 applications, 166 gave rise to a reduction/penalty on the applicant's 2021 BPS payment as set out in table 2 below. 

Table 2:  

 -

No of Applications

Appeals (as of 11/01/2022)

Partially successful appeals (as of 11/01/2022)

No Financial Impact/No  reduction 

169

25

0

Reduction only

47

11

0

Reduction and administrative penalty

119

89

76

Total

335

125

76

Please note that these figures will be subject to change due to ongoing reviews and appeals.

Each applicant has a right of appeal, and each appeal is examined on its own its based on the information provided  to the appeals officer by the applicant.  Of the 125 appeals received by my Department to date in respect of 2021 applications, 76 cases had the administrative penalty waived.

However, it should be noted that the burnt area is still considered ineligible and a reduction in payment may result. It should also be noted that where an applicant is dis-satisfied with the outcome of an appeal, they have further right of appeal with the independent Agricultural Appeals Office.

Footnotes. 

FIRMS: Fire Information for Resource  Management - earthdata.nasa.gov/earth-observation-data/near-real-time/firms

EFFIS: European Forest Fire Information System - effis.jrc.ec.europa.eu/

Sentinel: Imagery provided by Copernicus - www.copernicus.eu/en

Question No. 1953 answered with Question No. 1952.
Question No. 1954 answered with Question No. 1952.
Top
Share