Vol. 441 No. 1
126 Mr. Harte asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Forestry the reason, when a farmer is given inaccurate information in letter form as happens quite often, he or she is told that it was a computer error, but when a farmer fills a complicated CAP reform application for cattle headage and other grants it is considered by his Department to be a fraudulent application.
Innocent and obvious errors made in good faith by farmers in filling out application forms are not considered by my Department to be fraudulent and farmers are not penalised on foot of them but instead are offered the opportunity to correct them. Likewise, where farmers draw errors to my Department's attention before they are likely to be detected those errors are not used to characterise the applications in which they are made as fraudulent but are then corrected also. Only where information is given deliberately or negligently on an application in a way which can secure payment of sums not due to the applicant does my Department apply the penalty required by the relevant European Union regulations.
I am satisfied that my Department exercises a proper degreee of understanding of errors made by farmers in completing application forms. However, my Department cannot disregard applications deliberately completed incorrectly or completed with reckless carelessness in such a way as to attract grants not due to the applicants in question.
