8,500 hit by SFP fines

By Peter Young

Up to 8,500 farmers are being forced to repay €5.75 million in Single Farm Payment (SFP) and disadvantaged area payments that they were overpaid between 2005 and 2009.

The Department of Agriculture has written to each farmer in recent weeks, setting out the amount they have to repay.

Thousands

While many overpayments are less than €100, a number of farmers are facing repayments in thousands, where they were deemed to have overclaimed in each year of the last five years.

The overpayments came to light following the Department's review of the reference areas compared with the area that was actually claimed over the last five years.

In many cases, the problem was where farmers submitted farm buildings, roads, forestry or dense scrub as eligible land over that period.

The total overpayments that are to be clawed back amount to €5 million under the SFP scheme or €1million for each of the years being reviewed. Under the disadvantaged area scheme, €0.75 million was overpaid in the same period. The Department has confirmed that all letters regarding overpayments during this period have now been received by farmers and no additional letters will be issued.

The Department's focus on previous years' schemes is part of an attempt to avoid fines from the EU.

It emerged this week that the UK has been hit with fines of more than €223m for the period 2004 to 2006. The UK fines were due to weaknesses in the Land Parcel Identification System (LPIS) and 'insufficient checks' on people who benefited from the National Reserve.

Northern Ireland

England received fines of €189m while Northern Ireland suffered a €33.7m fine that is specifically related to weakness in the LPIS.

In addition to this clawback, an additional €40.6m is to be recovered from Northern Ireland, pending the results of an appeal from the Northern Ireland authorities.

The Department of Agriculture here is in discussions with the EU Commission on a number of issues that could possibly see fines imposed at a later stage.