Farm inspections put in spotlight

Farmers from North Tipperary IFA are confident that their months-long campaign on farm inspections is at last bearing results.

County chair Tim Cullinan and his delegation outlined their concerns about the Nenagh office imposing the highest level of inspections and penalties in the country to the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture on Tuesday.

Following the closed session, the Oireachtas Committee is to request that Aidan O’Driscoll, secretary general of the Department of Agriculture, and the Appeals Office, appear in front of it to address the farmers’ concerns.

Figures revealed in the Irish Farmers Journal earlier this year show that the Department’s Nenagh office carried out an average of 321 inspections in each of the six years to 2015, compared to the national average of 299.

Speaking to the Irish Farmers Journal, Tim Cullinan, North Tipperary county chair, said that the issue has been going on for a long time.

“In particular, we had serious issues with the way the inspections have been carried out in the past. We’ve given the examples before of inspectors going into farms where people had died on the farm.

“Also, we discussed the changes that were made in the handbook that farmers get with their Single Farm Payment, which farmers in north Tipperary believe contribute to the manner in which inspections are carried out.”

Cullinan added that he believed there was unanimous agreement on Tuesday that the Department’s inspection appeals process has to be reviewed and that the appeals committee should include independent people from outside the Department of Agriculture.

Integrity

Cullinan also alleged that his integrity was questioned when it came to the inspections problem.

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