Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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169. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the position regarding a rural environment protection scheme 4 overclaim in respect of a person (details supplied) in County Mayo; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14537/14]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Under the Terms and Conditions of REPS 4 scheme, the contract area must be retained for the duration for which REPS is payable over the course of the contract. Due to an overdeclaration of basic area in this case of 0.57 hectares, which was notified to the participant in January 2013, the Department imposed the following reductions and penalties as an overclaim amount in this case. Under the Regulation governing the scheme, where an overdeclaration is between 3% and 20%, which is the situation in this case, the overclaim results in a reduction in the basic payment and also a “double the difference” penalty in the year the overdeclaration is identified, in this case 2012. For 2012 this resulted in a basic payment reduction of €100.09 plus a “double the difference” penalty of €200.18. The total penalty amount for 2012 was €300.27 which was deducted from the participant’s 75% REPS 4 payment for 2012 resulting in a net payment of €3,684.65.

The balancing amount of the overclaim relating to the previous years of €329.49 was deducted in December 2013 from the participant’s Single Farm Payment.