Criticisms of direct farm payments schedule ‘ill-informed, inaccurate’

CRITICISMS of the schedule of direct farm payments to more than 110,000 farmers is “ill-informed and inaccurate”, says the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Brendan Smith.

The minister said that Ireland is one of the first member states to release single payment funding, and compares favourably with any other EU member state in processing applications. Any attempt to circumvent the new digitised mapping process could lead to Ireland having to pay severe fines.

Mr Smith said: “It is essential that my department’s land parcel identification system (LPIS), which records details of all land declared under all the area-based schemes, is fully accurate, given that LPIS underpins total expenditure under these schemes of more than €1.8 billion annually.