Know your rights when a farm inspector calls
Farm inspections are a requirement under EU regulations and farm scheme terms and conditions.
IFA has issued the following advice to help farmers prepare for Department of Agriculture inspections, know their rights, and have the correct information at hand.
What will be inspected?
Eligibility inspections are carried out to verify that you meet scheme eligibility requirements.
This includes land eligibility inspections to check that areas declared correspond to the area you farm, and to ensure no overlapping or duplicate claims.
Between 65 and 85% of land eligibility inspections will be carried out by remote sensing.
Cross-compliance farm inspections check that land is kept in good agricultural and
environment conditions, and that statutory management requirements such as cattle and sheep IDs, nitrates, animal welfare, feed and food hygiene, etc, are adhered to.
What can I expect in the inspection?
The Charter of Farmers’ Rights sets out a range of principles that should apply during farm inspections.
Some are highlighted below, but the full list is available in the Charter of Farmers’ Rights.
At the start of the inspection, the inspector should introduce himself or herself and provide ID. If you cannot be there, you can be represented by another person of your choice.
The inspecting officer will provide an inspection notice information,
explain the nature of the
inspections and, if possible, how selection was made (risk vs random).
Inspections will normally start at the main holding.
If the inspector cannot
locate anyone on the farm when they arrive to complete an unannounced inspection, they will leave and return
another day.
On their second visit, should nobody be present, the inspection officer will ring the applicant and proceed to conduct the inspection.
Flexibility will be given for the inspection to be rescheduled where there is serious illness, bereavement, or other good reason.
There will be a clear separation between announced and unannounced inspections.
Inspections may be combined, but all no-notice inspections will be separate to notice inspections, unless the farmer requests otherwise.
On the day of the visit, you will be provided with a
preliminary inspection report which will include a preliminary notice of findings.
The farmer/representative of the farmer, though not
obliged to, will be given the
opportunity to sign the report.
The farmer/representative of the farmer will also be given the opportunity to comment on the preliminary inspection report. Any comments will be noted in the report.
If the farmer chooses to sign this report, it doesn’t prejudice his position in respect of any penalties that may arise.
What are the main cross-compliance breaches in inspections?
Teagasc has identified the top five reasons for breach of cross-compliance.
They are:
n Cattle identification (AIMS problems in relation to movements, births and deaths, one or two tags missing on cattle, animal passport discrepancies, and/or cattle herd register not up-to-date)
n Pesticides (unregulated products, incomplete records, no warning sign on the chemical store, and/or inadequate pesticide storage)
n Nitrates (inadequate collection of livestock manure, inadequate management of manure storage facilities, structural defects in storage facilities, failure to minimise the creation of soiled water, and/not keeping within the organic N limit
n Sheep (inadequate flock register, sheep census returns and discrepancies, and/or tagging issues).
n Good agricultural and environmental conditions, or GAEC (poaching/rutting of permanent pasture, encroachment of invasive species, noxious weeds, and/or stock-proof boundaries).
What if I am unhappy with an inspection?
If you are unhappy about how the inspection was carried out, you can make a complaint by writing directly to the Department of Agriculture quality service unit.
You also have a right to seek a review of or to appeal a decision. When an appeal or a
review of the inspection is granted, an internal review is carried out within the payment section. If the internal review does not resolve the situation to your satisfaction, you can appeal to the Agriculture Appeals Office (AAO), an independent statutory agency. This appeal must be lodged within three months (see www.agriappeals.gov.ie).
If, at the end of the appeals process, you feel your case has not been dealt with to your satisfaction, you can seek the assistance of the Office of the Ombudsman.
Can you explain some of the inspection jargon?
Randomly selected inspection (means yours is one of 20% to 25% of cases that were randomly selected from the entire population).
n Risk inspection: Means your farm was inspected because of relevant and effective risk regulations set out by the Department of Agriculture.
n Remote sensing: A technique used where recent images captured by satellites are used to confirm the land area cover.
n Eligibility: Having the right to obtain something after satisfying certain conditions.
n Non-compliance: Failure to act in accordance to a condition or command.
n Cross-compliance: A system where you follow a variety of regulations in order to receive payment in the basic payment scheme.
