The president of Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers’ Association (ICMSA) has described the level of monitoring that will be employed this year for the Protein Aid Scheme and other schemes in future years as “grossly intrusive and disquieting”. Pat McCormack was referring to the new Checks by Monitoring (CbM) system that will be replacing the current ‘on-the-spot’ controls and will be compulsory in the new Common Agricultural Policy by January 1, 2024. Controls for this year’s Protein Aid Scheme will, for the first time, be undertaken remotely through the use of the Area Monitoring System (AMS). CbM is an automated and continuous process which will use satellite data along with other data sources to determine the agricultural activity on all land parcels declared by farmers under the Protein Aid Scheme in 2021.