Seán Kyne (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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221. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine why a person (details supplied) in County Louth has been issued with a debt repayment order, why the person was in breach of the terms and conditions of the agri-environment options scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43524/15]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The person named was approved for participation in the 2010 Agri Environment Options Scheme (AEOS 1) with effect from 1 November 2010, and has received payments in respect of the scheme years 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014.

Under the EU Regulations governing the Scheme and other area-based payment schemes, a comprehensive administrative check, including cross-checks with the Land Parcel Identification System, must be completed before any payment can issue.

In this case, the cross check with the 2014 Single Payment system revealed that three of the AEOS parcels on this person's contract had not been declared on their Single Payment Scheme application for 2014. Under the Terms and Conditions of the scheme, all undertakings under AEOS must be continued for a minimum period of five years. As this did not happen for the parcels in question, they were no longer eligible for payment under the scheme and payments made on these parcels for previous years had to be recouped. The person named was informed in writing of this decision in a letter dated 14 November 2014 and he was also informed that he should contact the Single Farm Payment Section if he believed the parcels were omitted in error from his SPS application.

My Department then proceeded to recoup the payments already made on these parcels and a further letter issued to the person named on 11 February 2015, informing them that a debt had been raised and advising them that interest would accrue until such time as the debt was paid in full.

Some recoupment has been made to date and will continue from future Department payments until such time as the debt has been paid in full. A quarterly debt statement was issued to the person named directly from Accounts Section in Cavan on 3 November 2015.