Finian McGrath (Dublin North Central, Independent)
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110. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will examine the case of a person (details supplied) in County Galway, whose single farm payment is below €100 in total, and who has been notified that he will not receive the basic payment going forward; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25539/15]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The person named established 22.10 entitlements under the Single Payment Scheme with a total value of €47.96. In cases where the total payment due to a farmer was less than €100 in any one year, such payment did not issue. As a consequence, the person named did not receive a direct payment in 2013 and does not hold an automatic right to receive entitlements under the Basic Payment Scheme in 2015. However, although he did hold entitlements, up to recently, he has not been considered as eligible to receive entitlements under the provision known as the Scottish Derogation.

The provision known as the Scottish Derogation allows for the allocation of entitlements to persons who never held Single Payment entitlements but who actively farmed during the 2013 scheme year and can provide verifiable evidence of agricultural production. Such allocation is restricted to those who ‘produced, reared or grew agricultural products’ in 2013 in the following sectors beef, dairy, sheep and arable sectors.

I brought this anomaly to the attention of the EU Commission and it was recently agreed that persons who were entitled to receive a payment of less than €100 in 2013 may be considered as fulfilling the same conditions as farmers who fall within the scope of the Scottish Derogation. This is subject to the condition that these farmers must never have held payment entitlements, either owned or leased, with a value greater than €100 in any year of the Single Payment Scheme. My Department will be in contact with the person named in the next couple of days to arrange the submission of a Scottish Derogation application.