Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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189. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the status of an application by a person (details supplied) in County Kerry under the single payment scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6496/16]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Under the Terms and Conditions of the Basic Payment Scheme and other area based schemes an applicant, as well as meeting the Scheme criteria, is required to comply with EU regulatory requirements relating to Cross Compliance. The person named was subject to a Nitrates inspection on 7 March 2014, carried out by my Department on behalf of the Department of Environment, Community and Local Government. This inspection identified non-compliances with the cross compliance requirements under the Nitrates Regulations with regard to rainwater from the open yard flowing into dairy collecting area thereby increasing the volumes of soiled water. No provisions were in place to divert clean rain waters from the dirty yard. The silage base concrete was badly eroded and broken. There was nothing to stop effluent escaping to ground water.

A report detailing findings of an inspection carried out by Kerry County Council on 15 December 2014 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. These breaches identified findings where soiled water/slurry from a dirty yard and some seepage from the slurry tank was collected and discharged to a pipe which in turn discharges into a land drain leading to direct discharge to groundwater. There were no proper collection facilities in place to collect soiled water and slurry from the yard and slurry pit.

The person named previously incurred breaches under the Nitrates Regulations following an on-farm inspection carried out in 2010 which resulted in a 5% sanction. In addition a 15% sanction was applied to the 2012 Direct Scheme Payments of the person named following a report received from Kerry County Council. As the breaches identified in 2012 were within the previous three years of 2014, the regulatory provisions required that the rules on repetition be applied and this resulted in a penalty of 45% being applied following the on-farm inspection carried out by my Department in March 2014 and a penalty of 100% being applied in respect of the breaches identified in the report received from Kerry County Council. This resulted in a final penalty position of 100% being applied against the 2014 Direct Schemes payments. The person named was notified of these decisions on 13 March 2014 and 30 March 2015. As payment in respect of the 2014 Single Payment Scheme had already been made, my Department was required to recoup the amount overpaid.

The person named appealed th e decision , the outcome of which was to reduce the sanction to 60%. The person named was notified of this decision on 9 March 2016.If 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.

Officials in my Department have put in place arrangements to refund any monies due to the nominated bank account of the person named as a result of the reduction in the penalty applied to the 2014 payment due under the Single Payment Scheme.