Ineligible land claims of €2m in Co Cork
Nationally, just over 10 million of single farm payments from about 33,000 farmers, and a further 2.3 million in disadvantaged area payments have been withheld in 2013. The farmers were found to have claimed payments for ineligible features such as roads, buildings, farmyards, dense scrub, etc.
This was uncovered during a Department of Agriculture review of over 900,000 individual land parcels declared by about 132,000 applicants, which was requested by the EU Commission. The farmers involved can seek a review of the decision by Department officials, followed if necessary by an appeal to the independently-chaired LPIS Appeals Committee, and ultimately to the Office of the Ombudsman.
However, further cost to farmers is likely, following the EU Commission’s warning that it may impose a flat rate financial correction because of over-payments to Irish farmers in the 9 billion of EU direct payment schemes from 2008 to 2012.
Under the EU Regulations, the Commission can impose a flat-rate correction of 2%, 5%, 10% or greater, depending of its assessment of the risk to the EU Fund involved. A 2% correction would mean, according to the Commission’s figures, a loss of 182m in funding to Ireland.
On the other hand, the level of the correction can be based on the assessed risk, if the member state can establish the risk, and the Commission are satisfied with the calculations. In such circumstances, if the risk is dealt with by the member state by collecting the debts arising from the over-payments, the amount collected is taken into account by the Commission in its final assessment.
This is the approach Ireland is following, according to Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney. In the Dáil, he said, “I am strongly of the view that a flat rate correction is not justified, considering the work already carried out by my Department in order to accurately assess the calculated risk involved and the actions taken to eliminate that risk.
A detailed case is being prepared for the EU Conciliation Body which mediates on these corrections, which will argue strongly from both a legal and technical viewpoint that a flat rate correction is not justified for Ireland.
“No final decision is expected until late in the year and in the meantime every effort will be made to keep any correction to an absolute minimum, recognising the vast amount of work which has been carried out to date by my Department to address land eligibility.”
He said every effort is being made to protect the interests of all Irish farmers, including the majority of farmers who were fully compliant in their annual payment claims.
