Penalty rescinded after map error

A single farm payment penalty of more than 20% has been reduced to zero on a Co Donegal farm, after Department officials discovered that what looked like a lake on an aerial map was a shadow.

“Rocks also cause issues,” said an official at a Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine debate.

“We are also aware that mistakes will occur when one is working on 900,000 parcels and redigitising one third, some 300,000 parcels, over a very short period.