Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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157. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine his plans for the sheep grassland scheme; the budgeted amount for the scheme; if he still proposes to merge the scheme payments with the single farm payment; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14303/14]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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In developing the shape of the new system of Direct Payments in Ireland, I have been very conscious of the needs of sheep farmers, in particular those who farm on hill and commonage land. In general, sheep farmers hold low value entitlements under the current Single Payment Scheme and will benefit significantly from the model of convergence that is to be applied in Ireland where those with a low Initial Unit Value will see the value of their entitlements increase over the period of the scheme.

The Grassland Sheep Scheme is based on Article 68 of the current EU Regulation 73/2009 which governs direct payments in the form of the Single Payment Scheme. As of the 1 January 2015 that Regulation is superseded by EU Regulation 1307/2013 and consequently there is no longer any legal basis for the continuation of the Grassland Sheep Scheme in its present form.

When determining the Initial Unit Value of a farmer’s entitlements under the Basic Payment Scheme in 2015, Regulation 1307/2013 gives Member States the option to take into account any payment the farmer received in 2014 under Article 68 schemes such as the Grassland Sheep Scheme. This option is only available where the Member State is not applying voluntary coupled support to the sector concerned under the new CAP.

I have decided to apply this provision in Ireland as a means of safeguarding the value of the payments received under the Grassland Sheep Scheme for those farmers concerned. The Grassland Sheep Scheme is the only Article 68 scheme that is being incorporated into the calculation of entitlements under the new Basic Payment Scheme. If such incorporation does not take place the value of such payments would simply remain in the national fund and would be redistributed generally among all farmers who establish entitlements.

The incorporation of the Grassland Sheep Scheme payment into the calculation of a farmer’s Initial Unit Value in 2015 will obviously result in a higher entitlement value for the farmers concerned from the start of the Scheme rather than relying solely on the gradual process of convergence to increase the unit value over the five year period up to 2019. Our analysis confirms that as a result of this provision the group of farmers who receive the Grassland Sheep Scheme will have an immediate financial benefit in 2015 as part of their payment under the Basic Payment Scheme.

Over the past two years sheep numbers have stabilised and while the breeding flock declined slightly in 2013, a return to growth is expected in 2014. I was pleased to note that for the third consecutive year Irish sheep throughput grew, reaching 2.61 million head, a rise of 7%. These developments led to sheepmeat production rising by around 3% to stand just over 55,000 tonnes. The total value of Irish sheepmeat exports is estimated to have increased by over 4% in 2013 to reach €220 million.

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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158. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine in relation to the eligible land issue and the appeals mechanism, how often the appeals board has met to date; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14309/14]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Under the Terms and Conditions of the Direct Aid Schemes, which includes the Single Payment scheme, farmers are obliged to declare only eligible land when making their applications and are to exclude ineligible features such as roads, buildings, farmyards, dense scrub, etc. These claims are then recorded on the Department’s Land Parcel Identification System (LPIS). Given the importance of the LPIS database in underpinning direct aid payments worth in excess of €1.5 billion annually, my Department is obliged under EU Regulations to ensure its accuracy.

Following consultation with the EU Commission, as part of the normal Accounting process, my Department was requested to undertake a complete review of the LPIS database. This has resulted in the necessity to adjust parcels of a significant number of applicants, where it was established that some ineligible features had been included. In certain circumstances these adjustments are giving rise to penalties.

The LPIS Review process initiated by my Department consisted on a review of all of the eligible land parcels in the LPIS database, which was declared by farmers under the 2013 Single Payment Scheme, the Disadvantaged Areas Scheme and other Direct Payment Schemes. In total, the Review covered in excess of 132,000 applicants and the land parcels declared by them as eligible for payment under one of more of the above-mentioned Schemes. A comprehensive review and appeals process has been implemented to ensure that the cases of individual farmers are fully scrutinised. In the first instance, a farmer, who finds himself or herself in this position, can seek a review of the original decision by Department officials. If they are not happy with the outcome of the review, they can submit an appeal to the Independent LPIS Appeals Committee , chaired by Mr. Pádraig Gibbons. To date, 90 cases have been forwarded to the Agriculture Appeals Committee on receipt of appeals from the applicants concerned. The committee has not as yet adjudicated on these appeals.

It is important to note that there are some positive outcomes of the current Review from a farmer’s point of view. In the first instance, I announced recently that the number of payment entitlements, which farmers will be granted under the Basic Payment Scheme in 2015 will be based on the 2013 eligible land or in 2015 if it is lower. This means that farmers, who have ineligible land deducted in 2013 as part of this Review, will be protected under the new Regime as their entitlements will be based on the actual eligible land in 2013. In addition, it also means that farmers, who are contributing to the convergence process by having reductions applied to their entitlements, will not see part of the funds used to make payments on ineligible lands.

A deliberate decision was taken late last year not to delay payments to those farmers whose payments were due to be subject to reduction following the outcome of the Review; rather, the payments issued with the sums in question deducted, the farmers concerned being then advised of the reductions and the appeals process. This course of action was specifically designed to ensure that there was no undue delay in issuing payments, while also ensuring that farmers were aware of the appeals process.