PAC to meet with Officials from Department of Agriculture Food and the Marine

The focus of the PAC’s examination will be the Department’s 2018 Appropriation  Account and chapter 10 – Forestry Grants from the C&AG’s 2018 Report on the Accounts of Public Services .

The Department exercises a wide diversity of functions including: development and implementation of national and EU schemes in support of Agriculture, Food, Fisheries, Forestry and Rural Environment, monitoring and controlling aspects of food safety, regulating the agriculture, fisheries, and food industries through national and EU legislation and monitoring and controlling animal and plant health and animal welfare.

The Department’s Appropriation Account shows that it spent €1.55 billion in 2018.

In addition, EU expenditure totalling over €1.2 billion was channelled through the Department in 2018. The bulk of this expenditure was accounted for by the Direct Payment/Basic Payment Scheme to farmers.

In the period 2015 – 2018, a total of €404 million Exchequer funding was spent on forestry development by the Department. The Department also provides substantial funding to a number of State bodies including Teagasc, Bord Iascaigh Mhara, An Bord Bia and the Horse and Greyhound Racing Fund.

Chairman of the PAC, Seán Fleming TD, said: “The Committee will be keen to discuss how the Department exercises its supervisory role over the State bodies which it funds, and the details of the internal financial controls regime in place. The PAC will also be keen to discuss the consistent annual underspend and substantial shortfalls in tree planting targets which the C&AG has drawn attention to.”

The meeting will start at 9am in Committee room 3, click here to view.