Pat Breen (Clare, Fine Gael)
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To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the reason for a decision regarding single farm payments in respect of a person (details supplied) in County Galway; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42358/12]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The position relating to the re-calculation of Single Payment entitlements following this Department’s Land Parcel Identification System (LPIS) Review of Commonage Parcels is as follows: the re-calculation of entitlements was undertaken under the provisions of Article 81 (3) of Commission Regulation (EC) No 1122/2009. It only applied to eligible commonage claimants, who satisfied the following criteria.

(i) Was declaring a commonage parcel, which was subject to the 2009 to 2010 LPIS Commonage Review.

(ii) The total reference area of commonage parcel was reduced as a result of the Review.

(iii) The applicant’s claimed area for the commonage was greater than his or her share of the reduced reference area.

(iv) The applicant was entitled to a re-calculation of his or her payment entitlements as the requirements of Article 81 (3) were met.

Article 81 (3) of Commission Regulation (EC) No 1122/2009 is as follows:

3. Where, for the purposes of paragraphs 1 and 2, it is established that the number of the entitlements allocated to a farmer in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 795/2004 or Regulation (EC) No 1120/2009 is incorrect, and where the unduly allocation has no impact on the total value of the entitlements the farmer received, the Member State shall recalculate the payment entitlements and where appropriate correct the type of the entitlements allocated to the farmer.

However, the first subparagraph shall not apply if the errors could reasonably have been detected by the farmers.

It is clear from the above that the re-calculation of entitlements can be undertaken if the area reduction would have had no impact on the total value of entitlements allocated i.e. if the reduced area was sufficient to carry the level of Premia payments made to an applicant during one or more of the years during the 2000 to 2002 SPS reference period. However, in the case of the person named, as the reduced area was not sufficient to enable the person named to have benefited from the full Premia payments made, the person named does not qualify for a re-calculation under the provisions of the EU Regulation.

It should be appreciated that the re-calculation of entitlements only applied to claimants, who declared commonage land, which formed part of the 2009/2010 LPIS Commonage Review. It did not apply to non-commonage land. In addition, it can no longer be applied to commonage land, as applicants are fully aware of the need to exclude ineligible land from their area declarations.