Marcella Corcoran Kennedy (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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191. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the reason a person (details supplied) in County Offaly will have to repay all moneys they received through REP scheme 4 on lands which they had been leasing 14.35ha, said lands having now been sold in recent months; if an appeal will be allowed in this case; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19653/13]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The person named commenced REPS 4 in June 2008 and received payments for the first five years of their contract. REPS 4 is a measure under the current 2007-13 Rural Development Programme and is subject to EU Regulations which require detailed administrative checks on all applications to be completed before any payments can issue. Under a REPS contract all participants undertake to implement, for a minimum period of 5 years, the measures detailed in their agri-environmental plan. However in the case of the person named following the administrative check, an area discrepancy was discovered between the Single Farm Payment Scheme application for 2010 and the REPS Agri-Environmental Plan due to a reduction in the contracted area.

A letter issued to the person named in May 2011 informing him of the reduced contract area for payment of 62.96 ha, the impending clawback of previous overpayments and the ‘right of appeal’. An appeal was not received by my Department. As the time limit for lodging an appeal has elapsed I wish to advise the person named of the ‘right of appeal’ to the Office of the Ombudsman.