Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

My understanding is that the payment resulted from replacing the old sheep headage scheme with a disadvantaged area scheme. Therefore, anybody who availed of the payment and continues to farm in the same way will be able to retain the payment. If somebody is not farming the land and has no stock on it, he or she cannot expect to hold on to the top-up payment, which is not unreasonable.

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