Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 18 December 2018
487. Deputy Sean Fleming asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the location in which it states in EU regulations that land has to be fenced for 12 months in order to qualify for the single farm payment and to comply with GAEC requirements; the reason his Department seeks to impose a penalty in cases in which land is not fenced for 12 months; the basis upon which this is arrived at; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [53281/18]
Amharc ar fhreagraArticle 34 of Regulation (EC) No. 73 of 2009 restricted payments under the Single Payment Scheme to farmers holding a payment entitlement per ‘eligible hectare’. An eligible hectare was defined as ‘any agricultural area of the holding…. that is used for an agricultural activity’. Article 34 expressly requires each hectare to ‘comply with the eligibility condition throughout the calendar year’.
Regulation (EC) No. 73 of 2009 restricted payments under the Single Payment Scheme to applicants holding payment entitlements with matching ‘eligible hectares’ complying with the ‘eligibility condition throughout the calendar year’. Applicants were therefore required to comply with the eligibility condition throughout the calendar year.
While applicants under the Single Payment Scheme were not necessarily required to show legal possession of the lands which were the subject of an application throughout the calendar year, this could not affect the requirement that those lands comply with the eligibility requirement throughout the calendar year under Regulation (EC) No. 73 of 2009. The applicant was also required to declare the lands at his ‘disposal’ on 31st May 2012.
The 2012 Terms and Conditions clearly set out this obligation. Section 3 stated that ‘lands declared as agricultural lands must be maintained as such until 31 December 2012’ The Declaration required then stated ‘You are also confirming that the lands declared as being available for a period including 31 May 2012 will be maintained as agricultural land, or land newly afforested in 2012, until 31 December 2012 and that you will inform the Department of any change in the status of that land’. Furthermore it is stated that “the person declaring the land on the Single Payment application will be held responsible for any non-compliance with the Statutory Management Requirements under Cross Compliance or failure to maintain the lands declared in Good Agricultural and Environmental Condition for the period 1 January to 31 December 2012”.
Article 2(1) of Regulation (EC) No 1122/2009 defines an ‘agricultural parcel’ as follows:
‘agricultural parcel’ means a continuous area of land, declared by one farmer, which does not cover more than one single crop group; however, where a separate declaration of the use of an area within a crop group is required in the context of this Regulation, that specific use shall if necessary further limit the agricultural parcel; Member States may lay down additional criteria for further delimitation of an agricultural parcel ;
Abandoned land was not eligible for payment. The requirement for suitable fencing is just one of the criteria that can be used to determine whether or not land is being maintained in an eligible condition. The absence of suitable fencing, particularly on marginal type land, indicated that grazing livestock were not being controlled in a manner to satisfy the maintenance requirement of an “eligible hectare”.
