Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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433. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will provide an update on payments withheld in respect of a person (details supplied) in County Mayo. [20663/15]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The person named commenced REPS 4 in June 2009 and received payments for the full 5 years and 7 months of the REPS4 contract. His participation in the Scheme ended on 31 December 2014.

REPS4 is a measure under the 2007-13 Rural Development Programme and is subject to EU Regulations which require detailed administrative checks on all applications to be completed before any payments can issue.

The person named was notified by the Department’s local office by letter dated 13 June 2013 that he had a total debt on his REPS4 contract in the amount of €25,693.66 arising from reductions in the Contract area. He was notified at that time that the amount may be recouped from future Department payments due to him.

The person named was further contacted by letter dated 6 January 2014, confirming that his contract area was reduced as a result of an overclaim of his share in commonage lands. The amount claimed was for 27/298 shares in the commonage although the ownership document showed a 9/298 share. Therefore, there was an over-claimed amount of 49.34 hectares of commonage for the years 2008 to 2012 and this resulted in a clawback of REPS payments already made. The person named was advised at that stage of the right to appeal to the Agriculture Appeals Office if he was not satisfied by the review of the Regional Inspector.

The original clawback amount on the REPS4 contract in this case was €25,693.96. There was a further in-payment penalty in relation to the 2012 REPS4 Scheme Year of €10,647.82, bringing the total debt due to the Department of €36,341.78. The person named was given details of the breakdown of how these clawbacks and penalties arose in an explanatory letter from the Department. At this stage, an amount of €20,813.71 has already been recouped through the REPS4 Scheme and other Department Schemes. There remains an outstanding debt due to the Department of €15,528.07.