One third fail inspections

By Peter Young

Out of 7,514 farmers selected for 'on the spot' inspections last year, 1,389 were penalised. A further 977 farmers failed on some issues but escaped financial penalties because of what Agriculture Minister Mary Coughlan described as the 'tolerance regime' applied in the area of tagging and traceability.

The vast bulk of the penalties (1,109 farmers) were applied for breaches of the rules relating to the identification and registration of bovine animals, including tagging, registration and the notification of movements or deaths of animals. 289 farmers were penalised for breaches relating to groundwater, nitrates, pesticides, food hygiene and good agricultural and environmental condition (GAEC). The total in penalties has now risen to over €700,000. The breakdown of the inspections and penalties were outlined in a written reply from Minister Coughlan to an Oireachtas question tabled by Fine Gael's Paul Kehoe last week.

The Department also revealed that the number of appeals to sanctions has doubled compared with last year.

IFA vice-president Derek Deane has said the figures show the need for additional tolerance systems to be introduced in relation to all aspects of the regime to save farmers from getting penalised for small unintentional breaches under the growing raft of measures.

"Having 'no notice' inspections is simply trying to catch out farmers and is the wrong approach,'' according to Deane.

He advocated a system that is simpler to understand and implement and that farmers will buy into. "We need a NCT type system where farmers that are inspected have an opportunity to correct small infringements before being penalised,'' Derek Deane said. He added that the Farm Advisory Service being developed under decoupling, should be run by the Department to educate and help farmers in this respect.

With the Nitrates Directive now fully implemented, farmers have additional paperwork to fill out this year.

Speaking at the Fertilizer Association of Ireland spring seminar on Tuesday, Al Grogan, Head of the Integrated Controls Division of the Department of Agriculture, said that every farmer is legally obliged to fill out a fertilizer plan for 2007 and must also keep records of all fertilizer they spread during the year.

Al said that farmers also have to watch stocking rates. "Anyone that does not get a derogation could now face a penalty to their SFP if they breach the 170kgN/ha-stocking limit in 2007.''

He explained that the Department will calculate the kgN/ha based on the area farmers submitted on their SFP application and the average stock on their farm over the year. The average stock is worked out by taking the figures off the CMMS on each day of the year. The news led to calls from the audience that farmers need access to their rolling average stocking rate throughout the year to allow them to make changes to avoid penalties.