Pat Breen (Clare, Fine Gael)
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78. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine when a decision will issue to a person (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45489/15]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The 2014 Single Farm Payment/Disadvantaged Areas’ scheme application of the person named was initially selected for a Remote Sensing inspection. A subsequent field visit, to verify the position on the ground, identified discrepancies between the area declared and the area determined resulting in an over-declaration in area of greater than 50%. This resulted in no payment being due under the 2014 Single Payment Scheme and the application of an administrative fine to be offset against any future EU payments.

As payment had already issued in respect of 2014, based on the results of the initial Remote Sensing inspection, my Department was required to recoup the amount of the payment issued from payments due under the REPS and the Beef Data Schemes.

The administrative fine for 2015 was calculated and deducted prior to payments issuing under the 2015 Direct Payments Schemes. The person named has no debts outstanding with my Department.

The person named sought a review of this decision. This review process included a re-inspection of the lands being claimed. The outcome of this review was to uphold the original decision. The person named was notified of this outcome on 20 July 2015. The person named submitted an appeal to the independent Agriculture Appeals Office, the outcome of which was to disallow that appeal. The person named was notified of this decision by the Agriculture Appeals Office on 8 December 2015. The person named was also notified that if they believed they had not been treated fairly by that Office it is open to them to raise the matter with the Office of the Ombudsman, 18 Lower Leeson St., Dublin 2.

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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79. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will make substantial payments on account, of up to 50%, under the single payment scheme and the disadvantaged areas scheme in cases where administrative checks are expected to be protracted and where no refunds are due to his Department; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45494/15]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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This year, my Department received over 135,000 applications from farmers under the Direct Aid Schemes, which are funded or partially funded by the EU. The Schemes involved include the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) and the Areas of Natural Constraints (ANC) Scheme.  Under EU Regulations, all applications must be subjected to robust administrative checks prior to payment. The main element of the administrative check is an area assessment. This is achieved by using the detailed database of individual land parcels. This is known as the Land Parcel Identification System (LPIS) which currently records, electronically, some 1 million individual land parcels and which is required to be kept fully updated.

The Department’s systems in this critical area must meet demanding EU and national audit requirements. Only valid applications under the BPS and ANC that fully comply with the requirements of the EU legislation are paid.  Consequently, all applications under the Schemes are subject to administrative checks. Cases that do not pass the validation process go into error and cannot be paid pending a resolution of the error concerned.  These errors include over-claims, dual claims and incomplete application forms.  In addition, applicants under the ANC scheme must fulfil stocking density and retention requirements. My Department enters into correspondence, mainly through the issuing of query letters to farmers, in order to resolve these error cases.

My Department has received approximately 123,000 applications under the BPS from applicants who currently hold entitlements and 102,000 applications from those eligible under the ANC scheme. In relation to the BPS and Greening Payment, I am pleased to confirm that advance payments began issuing in Ireland on 16 October 2015.   This is the earliest that payments can commence under the governing EU Regulations.  In addition, I can confirm that the level of the advance payment was set at 70% for 2015 rather than the normal 50%.  The increase in the advance payment for 2015 is, in particular, due to the difficulties encountered in the dairying and pigmeat sectors. The balancing payments commenced issuing as scheduled on 1 December.

Despite the extension of the closing date for the receipt of applications by two weeks, with a consequent reduction of the processing time available, Ireland was among the earliest to pay the BPS/Greening in the European Union. To date, in excess of 119,000 farmers have received payments totalling €1.054 billion - this represents 97% of the applicants. There is no rationale for partial payments, using scarce IT and processing resources, when the Department is targeting a payment figure of 99% by Christmas. In relation to the ANC Scheme, I can confirm that payments commenced, on schedule, on 23 September. To date, in excess of 89,600 farmers have received payments totalling €191 million. Certain of the outstanding farmers will not be paid until next year when they achieve the stocking requirements of the scheme. It is not possible to pay until these farmers are compliant with the terms and conditions of the scheme.

As outstanding BPS, Greening and ANC cases are fully processed and are cleared of any outstanding error, they will be processed for payment. My Department is prioritising the processing of all such outstanding cases with regular payment runs continuing over the coming weeks for all fully processed cases.