|
|
 |
You are > Home > Draconian penalties on map acre areas must be reversed says O’Beirne
|
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Draconian penalties on map acre areas must be reversed says O’Beirne
ROSCOMMON IFA County Chairman, John O’Beirne has called on the Minister for Agriculture, Brendan Smith, to address the draconian penalties being imposed where his Department have deemed that the farmers have over-claimed land for Single Farm Payment and the Disadvantaged Areas Scheme.
Mr O’Beirne said that the level of penalties being imposed on the farmers affected was excessive and would impact severely on farm income in 2010 and beyond.
“Backdating the penalties to 2005 is totally unfair and unacceptable as in most cases the farmer had declared the lands, which he had considered and was advised previously to be eligible for payment. Indeed the Department of Agriculture themselves has inspected this land and deemed it eligible in the past,” he said.
The IFA Chairman said that it was clear that ineligible areas such as houses, sites, roadways and farmyards had to be excluded from the SFP application.
“However, it is unacceptable that the Department of Agriculture is applying a stricter interpretation of the criteria to exclude many areas that were included for payment in the past,” he added.
Mr O’Beirne called on the Minister for Agriculture to insist that his Department refrain from penalising farmers and to set in motion a resolution to this problem.
“The Minister will have to go back to Brussels to argue that the penal retrospective approach where the Department is going back over five years is not acceptable. Imposing penalties on farmers who are so dependent on the direct payment system and living on unacceptably low incomes without having recourse to rectify the problem is not acceptable,” he concluded.
Main News Page |
Previous Page
|
|
|
|
Facebook
Twitter
