Farmers are urged to lodge full appeals on land eligibility issues

FARMERS seriously penalised in any land eligibility review have been advised to lodge full appeals of their cases to the Dept. of Agriculture given that it will affect their incomes for the coming years, a meeting in Athenry heard this week.

Over 400 farmers attended a public meeting in the Raheen Woods Hotel in Athenry on Monday night that was addressed by Dept. of Agriculture officials and senior IFA representatives.

Alan O’Brien and Pat Preston from the Dept. of Agriculture gave presentations to the meeting and also answered several questions into land eligibility issues that had arisen over the past year.

Gerry Gunning, IFA Rural Development Executive Secretary, outlined the implications of the CAP reform package and the impact of the Pillar 2 payments to farmers in the West of Ireland.

Galway IFA Chairman, Michael Flynn – who chaired last Monday night’s meeting – told the Farming Tribune that any farmer who was seriously impinged upon as regards land eligibility issues should appeal their cases.

“The first appeal is to a higher executive officer of the Dept. of Agriculture while after that the case can go to a full hearing of the Appeals Committee chaired by Padraig Gibbons.

“Any farmer who feels that they have been unfairly treated should utilise the appeals mechanism fully. Land eligibility issues and penalties can have a major affect on farmers’ income over the coming years,” said Michael Flynn.

He said that the IFA were pressing strongly for the removal of any retrospective element to the penalties given that previous applications by farmers had been made in good faith.

“In previous applications where corrections had to be made, the farmers submitted their application based on the information that was available to them at the time.

“Now that far more detailed photographic maps are available, there is no way farmers should be penalised for applications they had made in complete good faith with the information available to them,” said Michael Flynn.

Galway/Mayo IFA Regional Officer, Roy O’Brien told the Farming Tribune that the huge turn out at Monday night’s meeting showed the scale and seriousness of this issue to farmers in the West of Ireland.

“A compelling case has to be made to the EU Commission to remove any retrospective element to the penalties – farmers cannot be blamed for submitting applications in the past that were based on the maps available to them at that point,” said Roy O’Brien.