Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry South, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

313. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the position regarding the fines and cuts on many farmers as a result of the land parcel identification system (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1168/15]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Payments under the Single Payment Scheme, the Disadvantaged Areas Scheme and other area-based schemes must meet the requirements of the governing EU Regulations. The main Regulations that were applicable up to the end of December 2014 were Council Regulation (EC) No 73/2009, Commission Regulation (EC) No 1122/2009 and Commission Regulation (EC) No 65/2011. Under the requirements of these Regulations, payment can only be made on eligible land. Farmers are required to ensure that ineligible areas (scrub etc.) and features (rivers, lakes, houses, quarries, etc.) are excluded from the areas they declare for payment. This was not a new requirement implemented for the first time in 2013. Each year all applicants are provided with colour maps of the land parcels they declared in their application under the previous year’s schemes. All of the ineligible features that were established during previous on-the-spot inspections or were brought to the attention of my Department by the applicants, as they have always been required to do, were excluded by means of red-lining and other methods – e.g. splitting of land parcels. This requirement to exclude ineligible areas and features was always made clear to all applicants in the covering letter accompanying the maps and in the Terms and Conditions of the various schemes.

Under the provisions of the EU Regulations, where it is established that payments were made on ineligible areas, the farmer involved is obliged to repay the amount in question. This requirement is set out in Article 80 of Commission Regulation (EC) No 1122/2009.