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.

“It is now emerging that the direct opposite is the case. “ The Department of Agriculture and Food is drawing up another raft of detailed rules on cross compliance, which will give rise to yet another generation of inspections.”

Mr O’Rourke said an ICMSA proposal would meet all the requirements in a more logical and streamlined fashion. The whole battery of current farm inspections should be replaced by a simplified system where staff from within the Department of Agriculture and Food with relevant knowledge carried out all on-farm inspections. “But, to date, meaningful discussions on this matter in the context of social partnership have been frustrated by departments of Government, each insisting on having its own on-farm inspections, all making impossible demands on the time and resources of farmers,” he said.