Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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92. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the reason a person (details supplied) in County Cork had their single farm payment penalised; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [47499/14]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Under the terms and conditions of the Single Payment Scheme and other area based schemes an applicant, as well as meeting the Scheme criteria, is required to comply with EU regulatory requirements relating to Cross Compliance. The person named was the subject of a Nitrates inspection on 21 March 2014, carried out by my Department on behalf of the Department of Environment, Community and Local Government. This inspection identified non-compliances with the cross compliance requirements under the Nitrates Regulations relating to a slurry pit which contained slurry, soiled water and silage effluent and which had no evident floor or walls to contain runoff and, in addition, a large amount of farmyard manure was being stored on the land during the closed period.

As similar breaches under the Nitrates Regulations had been identified within the previous three years, the regulatory provisions required that the rules on repetition be applied and this resulted in a final penalty of 100% being applied against the 2014 Direct Schemes payments.

The person named was notified of this decision on 2 July 2014. The person named has appealed this decision and this request is currently being examined. The person named will be notified of the outcome as soon as possible.

In the event that the person named is dissatisfied with the outcome of this review, the decision can be appealed to the independent Agriculture Appeals Office, within 3 months.