Gerard Murphy (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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Question 171: To ask the Minister for Agriculture and Food the position regarding a person (details supplied) in County Cork. [37429/05]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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The person named had an on-farm inspection on 14 November 2005. The inspector raised possible issues of non-compliance and these are currently being examined. If a decision is taken to apply penalties, the person named will be notified and will be told that he is entitled to appeal the decision locally and that if he is unsuccessful, he has a further avenue of appeal to the independent agricultural appeals office. I would not expect this process to be concluded for a number of weeks.

When a penalty is imposed, accounting procedures laid down by the European Commission mean that it must be recorded on my Department's accounts system and must be recovered at the first available opportunity. It is, however, open to a person in this situation to make a case to my Department for the penalty to be recovered over an agreed period, and my Department takes a sympathetic approach to these requests.