Willie Penrose (Westmeath, Labour)
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Question 504: To ask the Minister for Agriculture and Food the reason a person (details supplied) in County Westmeath has not been paid farm entitlements to date; and if it is the position that they are being penalised twice, in relation to their arable aid payments, and also as a result their farm entitlements; if same can be set out in full so as to allow this person to take steps to ensure that their farm entitlements are duly paid out; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [27605/06]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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An application under the 2005 Single Farm Payment Scheme was received from the person named on 13 May 2005. Under EU legislation, in order to draw down his or her full Single Payment, an applicant must declare an eligible hectare to accompany each entitlement. In this case 42.98 entitlements had been established during the reference period with a unit value of €205.55 giving a gross amount of €8,834.54. As the person named declared 40.61 hectares of eligible land on the 2005 application form, the net amount due to him in 2005 was €8,096.97. However, the payment which issued to the person named on 16 December 2005, €1,963.08, was net of the following sums, which fell due to be recouped: €5,153.22, in respect of penalties under the Arable Aid Scheme, and €980.67 in respect of penalties under the Rural Environment Protection Scheme.

Under the 2003 Arable Aid Scheme, the person named declared 6.86 hectares of arable silage; however, following a field inspection, no arable silage was found. The person named was, therefore, deemed to have over-claimed by 100%. Under the 2004 Arable Aid Scheme, the person named declared 7.60 of arable silage; however, again following field inspection, no arable silage was found and the person named was deemed to have over-declared by 100%. Following an appeal by the person named, the proposed penalties were confirmed. These are the appropriate penalties that must be applied as per the governing EU regulations.