Irwin welcomes panels progress

Mr Irwin said this was an important step forward and represented a positive development for farmers as the new legislation now in place crucially means the verdict of the appeal panel will be taken as final.

In recent years Mr Irwin had been arguing it was fundamentally wrong that the verdicts of independent appeal panels, where they found in favour of the farmer, were in some cases not accepted as final by DAERA officials. The dismissal of such verdicts resulted then in farmers loosing thousands of pounds in withheld direct payments.

Mr Irwin stated: “This is a very important and very welcome step forward to see that the legislation is now in force from the start of February. I also welcome the fact that the Minister and his officials have commenced the process for recruiting panel members and chairs for this important service. I would encourage people who feel they meet the eligibility criteria to sit on the panel to make an application.

“This is an issue that has long been a bone of contention amongst the farming community and I have represented a number of farmers in recent years where verdicts of the independent panel have been in favour of the farmer however when this verdict is presented to departmental officials, they have disregarded the panel verdict and maintained the original decision. This has in reality cost the farmer thousands of pounds in withheld direct payments.”

He concluded: “Along with myself making representations, a lot of work was done on this issue by the late Brian Little and also by Jim Shannon MP and it is good to see that we have now reached the stage that recruitment is commencing for the new panels. This will undoubtedly be a step forward and will give added authority and weight to panels and in effect they will be truly independent of the department especially in their verdicts. It is only but right that this is the case as I know in other areas of government the verdicts of independent panels are final, this brings much needed balance to the table.”