Farmers set to do battle over unannounced inspections

A BITTER row between farmers and the Department of Agriculture and Food over the level of red tape surrounding EU schemes and directives is set to escalate today.

The 85,000-member Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) has announced that farmers will refuse access to department officials for unannounced on-farm inspections relating to nitrates and cross compliance. They want at least 14 days’ notice of the inspections.

Farmers have been venting their fury at meetings around the country at the unannounced inspections and the levels of bureaucracy relating to various aspects of their work.

But the Department of Agriculture said yesterday that 92% of farmers selected for the Single Payment Scheme (SPS) and the Disadvantaged Areas Scheme (DAS) inspection in 2006 are pre-notified.

It said these schemes are worth about €1.55 billion to Irish farmers annually, and, under EU rules, the department is obliged to carry out a small proportion of the inspections without prior notification.

The department said its policy toward on-farm inspection has been to give advance notice of up to 48 hours in all cases.

But this procedure was questioned by the European Commission in July, and in August it formally told the department the policy was unacceptable.

As a result, some 650 farms out of 130,000 involved in the SPS were subsequently selected for unannounced inspection.

The balance of inspection cases, representing 92% of the 8,200 farms selected for SPS/DAS inspection in 2006, are all pre-notified to the farmer, who is given the maximum advance notice allowable under the regulations (48 hours).

The statement said Agriculture Minister Mary Coughlan and the department is seeking authority from the European Commission to allow advance notification in all inspection cases and will continue to press this point in the Common Agricultural Policy simplification process.

However, the IFA said it had advised the department at various meetings during the year that a stand-off would arise unless a workable system was put in place.

IFA president Padraig Walshe said the department is seeking to carry out 1,500 inspections over the next two weeks and is not prepared to inform farmers of the criteria they are using. Unannounced farm inspections were unacceptable.

IFA deputy president Derek Deane said the purpose of the EU regulations was to ensure food safety and environmental protection and not to provide the department with a licence to witch-hunt farmers.

Meanwhile, Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers’ Association (ICMSA) deputy president John O’Leary said there is growing anger among farmers regarding unannounced inspections.

He said Ms Coughlan should immediately suspend unannounced inspections and vigorously pursue the European Commission to allow a system that gives the farmers concerned at least 14 days’ notice.