Tom Fleming (Kerry South, Independent)
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590. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will clarify headage payments in respect of a person (details supplied) in County Kerry who was notified by his Department regarding a deduction of over five hectares in 2013, they also were reduced by five hectares in 2012 and if he uses more that 50% of entitlement each year in a two year period, will he have the total used; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25960/13]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The Regulations governing the Single Payment Scheme provide that entitlements have to be used at least once in every two-year period. "Used" in this context means that in any of two consecutive years one hectare of eligible land must have been declared in respect of each entitlement held. The Regulations further provide that any entitlements that remained unused over the two-year period must revert to the National Reserve and are thereby lost to the farmer.

The person named has 15.22 entitlements with a total value of €892.65. Under the 2012 scheme year an application was submitted by the person named requesting the transfer of 9.25 entitlements by way of lease. This application was processed and 8.99 of the 9.25 entitlements were used by the transferee and now have an expiry year of 2014. Under the 2013 scheme year the person named has submitted a Transfer of Entitlement application requesting the transfer of 9.25 entitlements by way of lease. This transfer has been fully processed and provided that the transferee meets all the criteria in regards land eligibility for his SPS application, these entitlements will be used and therefore there will be no loss of entitlements to the National Reserve in 2013.