You are 10 times more likely to be cross-compliance inspected if you farm in parts of the east and south of the country.

This is the finding of an analysis of data from the Department of Agriculture carried out by the Irish Farmers Journal. One in 10 farmers who applied for Basic Payment in Wicklow, Carlow, Tipperary, Kilkenny and Waterford in 2016 had an inspection by the Department.

They were all about 10 times more likely to be inspected than their counterparts in Leitrim, the county where fewest farmers were inspected.

Also more likely than average to face inspection were farmers in Westmeath, Wexford, Offaly, Meath, Limerick and Laois.

As well as Leitrim, inspection rates were low in Sligo and Donegal.

The Department told the Irish Farmers Journal any comparison of inspection data on a county basis was “meaningless”. Farmers are selected by means of a risk analysis process which does not recognise county boundaries, a spokesperson said.

Selection is carried out by head-quarters staff using various ‘national’ data sets, not local staff, it said. “Cases are not selected proportionally to a county. The selection process must meet the EU regulatory requirements and is subject to EU audit.

“Cases are selected on a risk and random basis. The risk categories used take account of the land types, number and scale of enterprises, number of livestock and previous inspection history,” it said.

Cases selected within each risk category are selected randomly from the available populations.

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