Farmers inspected to distraction

A radical overhaul of the existing arrangements for farm inspections has been sought by ICMSA leader Pat O’Rourke, who claimed farmers were being literally inspected to distraction by six different authorities at present.

Mr O’Rourke said there was a multitude of different inspectors who could descend on a holding at any time, with the farm family forced to make last-minute arrangements to their work schedules. “We have examples where individual farmers have had to deal with two separate inspections on the same day,” he said.

Mr O’Rourke said the oft-quoted core principle of the mid-term review was Freedom to Farm. Farmers were given to understand that the phrase signposted the way forward.