Brendan Griffin (Kerry South, Fine Gael)
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308. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if a penalty applied to a 2013 single payment in respect of a person (details supplied) in County Kerry will be reviewed; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25888/15]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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In order to comply with EU requirements, the 2013 Single Farm Payment application of the person named was selected for a ground eligibility inspection. This inspection identified discrepancies between the area declared and the area found resulting in an over-declaration in area of greater than 50%. Based on the terms and conditions of the scheme this resulted in no payment in respect of 2013 and the application of an administrative fine to be offset against any future EU payments. The person named was notified of this decision on 18 December 2013.

The person named sought a review of this decision and the outcome was to uphold the original inspection decision. The person named was notified of this outcome on 13 March 2014. The person named submitted an appeal to the independent Agriculture Appeals Office and an oral hearing was held. The outcome of the appeal process was to disallow the appeal and the person named was notified of this decision by the Agriculture Appeals Office on 22 January 2015.

The person named requested a review of this decision from the Director of the Agriculture Appeals Office. The outcome of this review was to uphold the Agriculture Appeals Office original decision and the person named was notified of this outcome on 11 May 2015. The person named was advised by the Appeals Office that if they considered they had been unfairly treated by that office the matter could be raised with the Office of the Ombudsman.