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The number of farmers who faced penalties to their direct payment following cross-compliance and land eligibility inspections by the Department of Agriculture fell last year.
Some 217 fewer farmers were penalised for an over-declaration of eligible area, while an extra 420 farmers passed their cross-compliance inspection without issue, figures obtained by the Irish Farmers Journal show.
An over-declaration was found in 1,214 cases, with most farmers facing a small financial penalty
There were 7,754 farms selected for land eligibility inspection last year, 4% less than in 2018. In the majority of cases (85%), these inspections were carried out remotely by satellite, with Department inspectors visiting 1,127 farms.
An over-declaration was found in 1,214 cases, with most farmers facing a small financial penalty. Of those penalised, 73% were docked less than 3% of their payment. Another 19% had a penalty of between 3% and 10% applied, while just 8% were penalised more than 10%, a breakdown similar to other years.
Penalties
A number of these penalties were reduced under the yellow card system, whereby farmers over declaring for the first time can have their penalty halved.
Under this system, penalties on 224 farmers’ BPS payments were reduced while 219 ANC penalties were reduced.
Of those who were sanctioned for a breach of cross compliance rules, 975 were penalised between 1% and 5% of their payment
In addition to the land eligibility checks, the Department carried out 6,149 full cross-compliance and animal identification inspections.
One in five farms inspected were penalised and had their direct payment cut.
The other 80% of farms had a clear inspection or had only minor issues attracting no penalty identified, up from 73% in 2018.
Of those who were sanctioned for a breach of cross compliance rules, 975 were penalised between 1% and 5% of their payment, 212 faced a penalty up to 20%, 43 lost up to 100% while 30 farmers had their full payment withdrawn.
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