European Union-Overpayment to Irish Farmers.

EUROPEAN UNION-OVERPAYMENT TO IRISH FARMERS.

The EU Commission is taking back €2.4m in farm money which it claims was unduly spent by the Government.

In a ruling this week, Ireland is to be charged for what the Commission said were weaknesses in risk analysis, and the insufficient quality and quantity of physical checks within the export refunds scheme.

Ireland is one of several member states that has come under the Commission’s scrutiny for its spending of money under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).

A total of €126.7m is being claimed back in what the Commission said was non-compliance with EU rules or inadequate control procedures on agricultural expenditure.

Each member state is responsible for paying out and checking expenditure under CAP. The Commission, in turn, must ensure that correct use has been made of the money.

Funds are also being claimed back from Belgium, Cyprus, Denmark, Spain, France, United Kingdom, Greece, Italy and Slovenia.

The Department of Agriculture says the correction of the Irish account by €2.4m related to the risk analysis mechanism employed by the State to select good attracting export refunds for physical checks.

Ireland spends approximately €1.8bn of CAP funds each year which are subject to intense scrutiny by the European Commission and the European Court of Auditors.

"The correction is roughly 0.1pc of the total CAP funds received annually," a statement from the Department said.

It noted that over the past 10 years, financial corrections for Ireland amounted to about 0.15pc of the total EU funding received. The statement said this was the second lowest level in the EU after Austria.

- Majella O’Sullivan