Ned O'Keeffe (Cork East, Fianna Fail)
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Question 283: To ask the Minister for Agriculture and Food the reason payment of the EU single farm payment has not issued to a person (details supplied) in County Cork; if her attention has been drawn to the fact that they were advised that a 100% penalty has been imposed on them as one plot was included on the person's application and another application; and if her attention has further been drawn to the fact that this error was rectified and that the plot is in the ownership of this person who resides in a disadvantaged area and that the penalty should not be applied. [7290/06]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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An application under the 2005 single payment scheme was received from the person named on 5 May 2005. During processing of the application, it was found that the person named had claimed a portion of a parcel, which had also been claimed by another scheme applicant. My Department wrote to both applicants and, in response, the person named indicated that he did not have the right to claim the portion of the parcel in question.

Under EU rules governing the single payment scheme, where an applicant is found to have over-declared his or her forage area, a 100% penalty is applied, where the level of over-declaration is greater than 20% of the available forage area. My Department is writing to the person named advising him of the decision in this case. It will be open to the person named to appeal this decision to the agriculture appeals office.

Joe Walsh (Cork South West, Fianna Fail)
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Question 284: To ask the Minister for Agriculture and Food if decisions have been made regarding people who have consolidation problems with the single farm payment. [7310/06]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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When the implementing regulations underpinning the single payment scheme were being negotiated, my Department was instrumental in ensuring that provision was made for farmers fully to utilise their entitlements and benefit from the full single payment. The provisions catered for farmers, who in certain specified circumstances declared a number of hectares for the purposes of the single payment scheme, which was less than the number of entitlements granted to them. The circumstances involved covered a reduction in the number of hectares farmed due to the afforestation of lands, lands sold under a compulsory purchase order, or lands lost due to the expiry of a lease or rental agreement.

Following the inclusion of these provisions in article 42.5 of Council Regulation, EC, No. 1782/2003 and article 7 of Commission Regulation, EC, No. 795/2004, as amended, my Department introduced a programme for the consolidation of entitlements in certain specified circumstances. Approximately 12,800 applications to consolidate entitlements were submitted by farmers under this programme. To date, in excess of 97% of these applications have been fully processed. Any problems identified during the processing of these applications are communicated to the applicant and each case is further processed immediately on receipt of the applicant's reply.

It has come to light that some farmers who did not receive the full amount of the single payment granted to them, failed to avail of the programme for the consolidation of entitlements. Such farmers are being advised to write to my Department setting out the circumstances of their cases. It is intended that all such cases will be examined by my Department in the near future.