Written answers

Tuesday, 4 November 2014

Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine

Single Payment Scheme Payments

Photo of Áine CollinsÁine Collins (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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432. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the position regarding a single farm payment in respect of a person (details supplied) in County Cork. [41522/14]

Photo of Simon CoveneySimon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The holding of the person named was the subject of a Nitrates inspection carried out on 19 February 2014 by my Department on behalf of the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government. This inspection identified breaches under the Nitrates Regulations relating to the lack of storage facilities for farmyard manure and soiled water leading to direct/ indirect run-off to ground water. As similar breaches were identified at a previous inspection on the holding in 2011 and it was noted that no improvement had taken place to address the previous non-compliances, the current breaches were deemed as serious and intentional resulting in a 100% penalty being applied against the 2014 Direct Schemes payments.

The person named was notified of this decision on 6 March 2014. The person named was also informed of the right to seek a review of this decision. No request for such a review has been received by my Department to date.

Photo of Michael CreedMichael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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433. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will provide details of an alleged overpayment to a person (details supplied) in County Cork under the 2013 single payment scheme; if this overpayment is alleged to be due from an over-claim under the LPIS; if he will give details of the exact location of the plots where the alleged over-claim exists; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41528/14]

Photo of Simon CoveneySimon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The overpayment under the 2013 Single Payment Scheme relates to breaches of Cross Compliance requirements. Under the Terms and Conditions of the Single Payment Scheme, an applicant as well as meeting the Scheme criteria is required to comply with EU regulatory requirements relating to Cross Compliance. A report detailing findings of a Nitrates Derogation inspection on 11 thOctober 2013 was referred to my Department’s Cross Compliance Unit for attention. This report detailed breaches relating to the cross compliance requirements under the Nitrates Regulations.

The breaches under the Nitrates Regulations related to:

- inadequate collection of soiled water, slurry and silage effluent

- inappropriate collection of dairy washing and soiled water from collecting yard

- inadequate storage capacity for organic fertilisers

- exceeding the maximum phosphorous limit

The breaches resulted in a 20% penalty being applied against the 2013 Direct Schemes payments. The penalty amount totalled €2,040.93 and this was recouped from the 2014 Advance payment of the person named.

The person named was notified of this decision on 30 April 2014 . The person named was also informed of the rightto seek a review of this decision. No request for a review has been received by my Department to date.

Photo of Michael CreedMichael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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434. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the reason for his Department's delay in contacting farmers where there is an alleged overpayment; if he will consider, where circumstances permit, issuing payment less the alleged overclaim; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41530/14]

Photo of Simon CoveneySimon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Payments under the Single Payment Scheme, Disadvantaged Areas Scheme and other area-based schemes may be made only in respect of eligible land and applicants are obliged annually to declare the land parcels available to them; details of the eligible area of the land parcels are recorded on my Department’s Land Parcel Identification System (LPIS). Details of the use and area claimed for each of some one million parcels on the LPIS system are registered and continually monitored by my Department. Where over claims are identified during the processing of Single Farm Payment applications my Department contacts the applicant concerned. However, in order to expedite the flow of payments the current procedure for dealing with such overclaims is to process the application, in accordance with EU rules, and issue payment on the basis of the Department’s determined reference area. This allows funds to be paid to a farmer without withholding the entire amount while the overclaim issue is resolved. If, following review, an area is increased, a further supplementary payment can issue to the applicant.

Finally, I can confirm that payment runs are continuing on a twice-weekly basis, with individual cases being paid after they are confirmed as having satisfied the Scheme requirements.

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