Brendan Griffin (Kerry South, Fine Gael)
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90. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if a decision has been made on an appeal by a person (details supplied) in County Kerry of a non-compliance penalty; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39755/15]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The penalty applied under the 2015 Basic Payment Scheme relates to breaches of Cross Compliance requirements. Under the Terms and Conditions of the Basic Payment Scheme, an applicant as well as meeting the Scheme criteria is required to comply with EU regulatory requirements relating to Cross Compliance. A report detailing non-compliances observed by Kerry County Council on 28 July 2015 was referred to my Department’s Cross Compliance Unit for attention. This report detailed breaches relating to the cross compliance requirements under the Nitrates Regulations.

The breaches under the Nitrates Regulations related to:

- The spreading of slurry close to the water intake of adrinking water treatment plant, and

- The spread zone was within 200 meters of the water course.

These breaches resulted in a 5% penalty being applied against the 2015 Direct Schemes payments.

The person named was notified of this decision on 15 September 2015. The person named appealed this decision to the District Inspector for the region on 5 October 2015 and this request is currently being considered. The person named will be notified of the outcome as soon as possible. In the event that the person named is dissatisfied with the outcome of this review, the decision can be appealed to the independent Agriculture Appeals Office, within 3 months.