Irish proposals to the EU to lessen bureaucracy and give farmers more notice of inspections are finding support from an increasing number of member states, it was claimed yesterday.
Minister for Agriculture and Food Mary Coughlan said she will be pushing strongly at the EU farm ministers' meeting in Luxembourg on Monday for a simpler system of checking on farmers to see if they comply with EU rules.
She had lobbied her EU ministerial colleagues earlier in the year to allow farmers adequate notice of inspection and for a reduction in the paperwork involved.
The subject of inspections became an election issue as farm organisations pressed home their claim that they were being subjected to a very rigorous regime without notice and stood to lose a high proportion of their farm subsidies for very small breaches of the regulations.
They said they had been promised a more simplified system of inspections and less paperwork when they opted to accept decoupling of production from EU farm subsidies.
Ms Coughlan said she was happy that Ireland's initiative on many of the issues - not least the need for adequate advance notice of inspections that recognised the practical realities of modern farming - was finding support from more member states.
However, she said she was well aware there was still a long way to go to convince the European Commission and to secure the necessary changes to cross-compliance arrangements.
She said her department had undertaken a review of the paperwork associated with cross-compliance inspections, with a view to simplification and a practical approach.
The Minister also added that the cross-compliance arrangements in place were critical elements in delivering payments in excess of €1.6 billion to Irish farmers in 2007.