Allister calls on DARD not to make a meal out of duplication in SFP applications
10 January 2006
DUP MEP Jim Allister has voiced concern at the scale of Single Farm Payments withheld because of obvious errors arising from conacre holders and the landowners claiming on the same portion of ground.
“Given the complexity of the forms it is no surprise that many innocent mistakes were made in completing the application forms. One of the greatest source of mistake arises from duplication. Fraud is not an issue because of registration of all land in the Department’s computer system, rather the cause lies in human error and misunderstanding between the landowner and his lessee. In these circumstances it is, therefore, inappropriate for the Department to threaten penalties for such transparent errors. Nor, in my opinion, should it take very long for these mistakes to be sorted out and payments made.
It is important that DARD exercises maximum discretion in resolving these issues and in particular uses its discretion not to resort to penalties.”
