The Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers’ Association (ICMSA) has said that the new Farmers’ Charter must relieve the “stress and anxiety” associated with inspections.
The charter sets out specific delivery targets to farmers and covers various schemes, which is reviewed by a committee. The committee comprises representatives of farm organisations and Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) staff.
Deputy president of the ICMSA, Denis Drennan, has said that the charter to be agreed for 2023 and future years must prioritise the substantial reduction of the regulatory burden placed upon farmers.
He said that commitments agreed and included in the charter must be delivered “in full” by the DAFM.
“We are happy to acknowledge the progress made on some schemes and issues in previous charters – certainly ‘hitting’ payment targets improved substantially – but problems remain,” Drennan said.
“We want this new charter to recognise them and set out to solve them – the well-known problems around forestry payments are a very good example.”
Inspections
The ICMSA said that much avoidable “stress and anxiety” remains focused on the issue of inspections and has urged that this long-standing problem be addressed.
Drennan continued: “Three issues particularly need to be addressed. Firstly, ‘no notice’ inspections should be confined to history and an adequate period of notice should be given to farmers for all inspections.
“With the changing structure and complexities of farming, it is simply unacceptable that an inspector would just arrive at a farm and expect a farmer to stop whatever he or she is doing for a day.
“Farms are a working environment and farmers need adequate notice to ensure they can properly address the requirements of the inspections.”
Secondly, the association has said that the number of inspections should be kept to a minimum and should be set at the number required under EU legislation.
“In addition, a clear protocol and clarification is required in relation to the use of satellite inspections and farmers need to be assured that ‘Big Brother’ is not watching them on a constant basis and that their right to privacy is protected,” Drennan continued.
The ICMSA is also calling for a fair system of “reasonable tolerances” for farmers.
“With the best will in the world, given the sheer scale and complexity of regulation surrounding farming today, farmers will make genuine mistakes and errors and a system of tolerances that will ensure no financial penalty for minor breaches of regulations is required and must be agreed as part of the new Farmers’ Charter,” Drennan explained.
The ICMSA said that it is essential that the new Farmers’ Charter is finalised as soon as possible.