Paul Connaughton (Galway East, Fine Gael)
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461. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the reason a person (details supplied) in County Galway did not receive full payment for the beef technology adoption programme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14802/14]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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In order to be eligible for payment under the 2013 Beef Technology Adoption Programme applicants were required to attend six meetings (applicants were permitted to attend one approved national event as one of their six meetings). In addition to attending the required number of meeting/events all applicants were also required to select and successfully complete two tasks from a menu of ten.

One of the tasks selected by the person named was Task 4, this task relates to soil sampling but unfortunately this task is not available to applicants who are participants in AEOS 2. This condition is explicitly outlined in the scheme terms and conditions.

The onus on task selection rests with Programme participants to ensure that they chose Tasks that are appropriate to them. As the person named is a participant in AEOS 2 he is not permitted to select task 4 and therefore not entitled to payment under BTAP 2013.