Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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291. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the position regarding farm payments in respect of a person (details supplied) in County Mayo. [9224/15]

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. A report detailing findings of an inspection carried out by Mayo County Council on 3 March 2014 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 and under the Good Agriculture and Environmental Condition (GAEC) standards.

The breaches identified under the Nitrates regulations related to a lack of facilities for the collection of livestock manure leading to indirect discharge to groundwater, livestock manure was stockpiled during the closed period and clean water from the roofs of sheds was not being diverted to a clean water outfall. The breach identified under the GAEC standards related to heavy poaching in one parcel of land. These breaches resulted in an overall sanction of 5% being applied against the 2014 Direct Schemes payments.

The person named was notified of this decision on 31 October 2014 and of their right to seek a review of the decision. To date no such request for a review has been received by my Department. In the event that the person named is dissatisfied with the outcome of any such review, the decision can be appealed to the independent Agriculture Appeals Office, within 3 months.