Map mess must not penalise farmers

In Agriculture by Denis Naughten

Local TD, Denis Naughten has called on the Minister for Agriculture to ensure that his department’s failure to digitise maps does not lead to delays in paying farmers under various schemes including the Single Farm Payment and Disadvantaged Area schemes.Farm Landscape

“It seems that the advance payment will not be made on parcels of land that were amended when submitted last May to the Department of Agriculture and which have not yet been digitised. This is just unacceptable.

“The Department has had four months to address this issue and farmers should not be left out of pocket because of the lack of action by Minister Smith.

“Minister Smith must clear such applications for the advance payment and then recoup any overpayment from the final instalment due to farmers later in the year.

“He should also avail of the skills of staff in Land Registry and the General Registry Office, both based in Roscommon Town, who have completed large scale digitisation programmes and could assist in dealing with the mapping backlog,” concluded Denis Naughten .