Denis Naughten (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Independent)
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16. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the steps he is taking to address farm penalties under the basic payment scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [34030/15]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The reductions and penalties that apply to the Basic Payment Scheme are laid down in EU Regulations 1306/2014 and 640/2014. The reductions and penalties apply in instances such as the following situations: - Where the applicant over-declares the eligible area of his or her land parcels.

- Where the applicant declares land that is also claimed by another farmer (dual claims) and it is established that he or she has no right to declare it for payment.

- Where the applicant claims land that he or she is no longer farming, which is effectively abandoned land.

- Where application forms are submitted after the deadline for the submission of applications.

The most effective method of reducing the level of penalties that apply to payments under the Basic Payment Scheme is to encourage farmers to ensure that they do not include such ineligible areas in the applications. In that regard, my Department issues maps of all the lands parcels declared for payment on an annual basis to all of the farmers submitting applications under the Direct Payment Schemes. In a covering letter accompanying the maps, farmers are strongly urged to carefully scrutinise the maps and ensure that they exclude all ineligible areas and features from the lands that they declare for payment in that year.

Many farmers have made arrangements with registered agricultural consultants/advisors to act as their agents for the submission of Direct Payment application forms. The majority of such applications are submitted on-line. Where a farmer has any doubts relating to land eligibility he/she should double check this matter when confirming their application form details with their agent prior to submitting the Direct Payments application form. The vast majority of farmers heed this advice, consulting their agents as necessary and have excluded these ineligible areas from their applications.

My Department continues to take other action to bring this message to farmers and their agents. For example, my Department issued a comprehensive booklet on land eligibility in May of this year to all applicants. In addition, the opportunity is taken at scheme information meetings throughout the country to make a presentation to farmers on what lands should be excluded from their claims for payment.

Those farmers, who have over-claims detected during the completion of the administrative checks or following ground or remote sensing land eligibility inspections have the right to seek a review of the decision and if they are not satisfied with the outcome of the review, they can appeal the decision to the Agricultural Appeals Office.