Around 1,000 cereal farmers in Ireland will see their claims for European Union grants rejected after a high tech surveillance scheme detected that the information they provided was false.
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Officials from the department of agriculture explained that the farmers’ applications for EU grants, made under the Area Aid Arable Scheme (AAAS), were doubled-checked using satellite photographs. These images can tell the difference between arable, forage and grass areas on farmland.
In 2001, the agriculture department paid out almost €130m (US$190m) under the AAAS to nearly 16,000 cereal farmers. This was up 8% increase on the previous year.
Now however, “about 1,000 [farmers] are now deemed not to have been eligible and they are being written to at the moment,” a spokesman from the department told the Sunday Mirror newspaper.
“The area of penalties is being looked at now – what penalties should apply to different situations. The penalty will differ on a case-by-case basis.”
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