Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick, Fine Gael)
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282. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine in the event of farmers adding a son or daughter to their herd number, if this is treated as a transfer of 50% of the basic payment scheme entitlements from the parent to the child, under the 2015 basic payment scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14511/15]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Where a parent adds a son or daughter to their herd number in the 2015 scheme year, there is a transfer of allocation right and reference value from the sole name to the joint names by way of a change of registration details. The new Basic Payment Scheme entitlements are then allocated to the joint herd owners as opposed to the sole herd owner. It is possible that the joint herd owners may have their own agreement in place as to the division of the entitlements between them and in those circumstances my Department will recognise and give effect to that agreement.

However, in the absence of such an agreement, the presumption is that the entitlements are held by the joint herd owners in equal shares. Therefore, in the event of a parent adding a son or daughter to their herd number in 2015, it would be presumed that the entitlements were being allocated to them on the basis of a 50/50 share.