18 Mr. Yates asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Forestry the reason farmers are required to supply maps of their farms in connection with area aid applications; the reason he has specified that the maps supplied must be originals; whether a similar requirement will apply in future years; and if he will make a statement on the matter.

25 Mr. J. Higgins asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Forestry the reason farmers are required to supply maps of their farms in connection with area aid applications; the reason he has specified that the maps supplied must be originals; whether a similar requirement will apply in future years; and if he will make a statement on the matter.

63 Miss Flaherty asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Forestry the reason farmers are required to supply maps of their farms in connection with area aid applications; the reason he has specified that the maps supplied must be originals; whether a similar requirement will apply in future years; and if he will make a statement on the matter.

88 Mr. J. Fox asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Forestry the reason it is necessary for livestock farmers to present maps for subsidy purposes when they are actually being paid on a headage and quota basis; and the arrangements, if any, he has made for small farmers who cannot afford these expensive maps.

90 Mr. Connor asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Forestry his views on whether the mapping requirements under the area aid scheme for non-tillage farmers recently announced by his Department, are appropriate and an acceptable cost and that many of the ordnance survey maps demanded for the scheme are out of date; and if he will make a statement on the matter.

96 Mr. Harte asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Forestry the reason farmers are required to supply maps of their farms in connections with area aid applications; the reason he has specified that the maps supplied must be originals; whether a similar requirement will apply in future years; and if he will make a statement on the matter.

176 Mr. Hilliard asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Forestry if land registry maps are acceptable on 25 inch scale for the area aid scheme; and the circumstances in which no map is required when making these applications.

177 Mr. Hilliard asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Forestry if farmers have to provide ordnance survey maps with their 1994 area aid applications which are unchanged if they provided photocopies of maps with their 1993 applications.

I propose to take Questions Nos. 18, 25, 63, 88, 90, 96, 176 and 177 together.

In response to an item raised on the Dáil Adjournment on 10 November I outlined the requirements of the EC regulations with regard to the identification of agricultural land parcels in the context of administration and control of the premium schemes and the arable area payments schemes flowing from the CAP reform.

To ensure that the EC rules for the various premium and disadvantaged areas headage schemes and the arable area payment schemes are complied with in 1994, farmers are required to submit a map or maps showing the boundaries of the holding as well as the boundaries of each plot on the holding. The maps are required to help identify and locate the areas of land being farmed as submitted in the area aid application which applicants for various EU premia and headage grants have to submit. In the livestock sector, the necessity to submit the area aid application is linked to the stocking density provision under the suckler cow and special beef premium schemes and under all disadvantaged areas headage schemes. In 1993 I succeeded in confining the requirement to submit maps to arable aid applicants only but, from 1994 on, maps are required from all applicants for headage and premia payments who are obliged to submit area aid applications.