No thanks, to a civil servant for every 25 farms
“Serious questions must be asked whether the Government is more concerned with ensuring maximum compliance at farm level, or helping the industry”, said Mr Deasy.
He emphasised that IFA has never supported farmers who try to defraud the system and that remains the clear policy of the association.
“But I am seriously concerned, and question if the level of inspections and the amount of checks which are being carried out on farmers are justified either economically or under any other criteria, when the cost of administration of the sector is taken into account.”
“Do you know that we now have one civil servant for every 25 farmers running the system.”
“I think that is an administration heavy industry, at a time when the Government can offer nothing to farmers“, he said.
Mr Deasy said that inspections on farms by officials of the Department of Agriculture have been stepped up over recent weeks.
In turn, farmers have lodged more appeals, because they were threatened with loss of premia for minor breaches of rules. He advised farmers that farm inspections can take in all animals on the farm, and not just the declared purpose of the visit.
“If an inspector comes on to the farm to check on a special beef premia application, he will also check on other livestock on the farm to see if they are all entered in the register and that all of the animals are correctly tagged”.
“Where inspections are being carried out, it is important to ensure that the register is up to date and that there are no missing tags”, he said.
Mr Deasy said red tape has gone too far, and it was now a major burden on many farmers, particularly older farmers who are not able to cope with it, and it is forcing some of them to opt out off farming.
