Noel Coonan (Tipperary North, Fine Gael)
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90. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine when a payment under the Single Payment Scheme will issue in respect of a person (details supplied) in County Tipperary; the reason for delay in payment; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8516/15]

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, including requirements under the Nitrates Regulations. Records available to the Department confirm that the person named applied for a Nitrates Derogation in 2011 and 2012, which would have allowed him to farm up to 250 kgs of Nitrogen per hectare per year, subject to compliance with the terms and conditions of the Derogation, which include the submission of a Fertiliser Plan, a critical element of the derogation process. The Derogation applications for 2011 and 2012 were rejected as no Fertiliser Plan was submitted for either year. This resulted in non-compliances with the maximum limits of Nitrogen kgs per hectare requirements of the Nitrates Regulations being determined in each of these years. This resulted in penalties being applied against the 2011 and 2012 Direct Payments Schemes.

The Department’s records indicate that in 2013, the amount of nitrogen from livestock manure applied to land on the holding of the person named above (including that deposited by animals) was 198 kgs per hectare, which exceeded the limit of 170 kgs per hectare set down in the Nitrates Regulations. The person named did not apply for a Nitrates Derogation in 2013.

As similar breaches under the Nitrates Regulations had been identified within the previous three years, as detailed above, the regulatory provisions require that rules on repetition must be applied and this resulted in a 100% penalty being applied against the 2013 Direct Payment Schemes.

The person named was notified of this decision on 14 October 2014, and of his right of appeal to the Agriculture Appeals Office. I understand from that office that the person named has not availed of this option.

EU Regulations governing payments under the Direct Payment Schemes require that where overpayments are identified in respect of a scheme year for which payments have already issued, the over-payments must be recouped from any future year’s payments due to the applicant. In this case the 2013 overpayment under the Single Payment Scheme was deducted from the 2014 payment due to the person named under this scheme, resulting in a net payment of €18.43 issuing in respect of 2014 scheme. This payment issued to the nominated bank account of the person named on 11 December 2014.