Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 1 October 2020
414. Deputy Jackie Cahill asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of satellite inspections carried out up to 1 September 2020; and the way in which they compare with other years since 2015, in tabular form. [28029/20]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe process associated with remote sensing/satellite inspections involves a number of stages including the selection of cases for inspection as part of the annual risk analysis process, the acquisition of imagery from the EU Commission at two stages during the year to provide a complete picture of land eligibility usage and taking account of the growing period for arable crops and a comprehensive review of the range of satellite imagery to ensure compliance with scheme requirements. In additon, where it is not possible to make an accurate determination on the eligibility of a parcel or parcels of land by means of an assessment of the imagery, a field visit must be undertaken to verify the position on the ground.
Furthermore, the actual inspection process cannot commence until the application process (including the option for the submission of amendments and the preliminary checks process) has been completed. It is only at this point that the final position on the lands being declared is known.
Given the various stages in the process, there can be variation year to year but invariably a significant amount of progress is made on these cases during September each year. Accordingly, the following table details the position on the number of remote sensing inspections for which inspection results were received at 1st September and 30th September for each of the years 2015 to 2020.
|
Year |
Total No. of Remote Sensing Inspections |
No. of Remote Sensing Inspections with inspection results received @ 1st September |
No. of Remote Sensing Inspections with inspection results received @ 30th September |
|
2015 |
6,811 |
0 |
2,355 |
|
2016 |
6,219 |
0 |
3,016 |
|
2017 |
6,508 |
1,612 |
3,817 |
|
2018 |
6,845 |
1,002 |
3,722 |
|
2019 |
6,845 |
436 |
3,808 |
|
2020 |
6,483 |
685 |
3,536 |
