There will be a slight drop in farmer demand for advisory services from Teagasc, the agriculture and food advisory authority, because of the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy, a Dáil committee heard yesterday.
The Public Accounts Committee was told by Mr Jim Flanagan, the Teagasc director, that farm numbers were dropping annually and these farmers would not be using the services of Teagasc. "But we believe the farmers who remain will need more services than before and this will mean that a higher percentage of farmers will be using Teagasc," he said.
"Overall there will be a small percentage drop in the use of the service but there has been a 10 per cent reduction in the overall staff levels because of the reorganisation," he said.
The Committee had been questioning the director about a supplement to the audit report by the Comptroller and Auditor General on the Teagasc annual report for 2003.
The report had dealt with the uncovering of false mileage claims made by a staff member of over €77,000 which led to his demotion and repayment of €130,056 to include interest.
Another part of the report dealt with an employee who had breached the code of practice for governance of State bodies by failing to declare an interest in an IT company he set up and which supplied over €300,000 worth of services to Teagasc.
Mr Seán Fleming (FF) said he was concerned that so much time was being spent discussing the false claims for €70,000 in a organisation with a turnover of €168 million.
However, the chairman of the committee, Mr Michael Noonan (FG) said transparency was important and a big issue.