Written answers

Wednesday, 9 November 2016

Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine

Areas of Natural Constraint Scheme Payments

Photo of Michael Healy-RaeMichael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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181. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the status of payments in respect of persons (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33966/16]

Photo of Michael CreedMichael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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Payments under the Areas of Natural Constraints (ANC) scheme commenced during the week commencing 19 September and are continuing on a twice weekly basis. To date almost €184 million has been paid to 85,000 applicants. It is expected that some 97,000 applicants will qualify for payment under the scheme.

 A number of applications are not yet clear for payment under the scheme; the applicants are aware of the scheme requirements and what is required to fulfil them. In particular, many farmers have yet to satisfy the annual average stocking density of 0.15 livestock units per forage hectare for the calendar year.  However, farmers have until 31 Dec 2016 to do so. Such cases will clear for payment once  compliance with this requirement has been confirmed.

The total number of applicants with entitlements allocated under the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) is currently just over 128,000. Only valid applications under the BPS that fully comply with the requirements of the EU legislation are paid. Each year a number of cases are found to be “in error” - errors include over-claims, dual claims and incomplete application forms.  In order to resolve these issues, the Department enters into correspondence with farmers.  The aim is to issue such query letters as early as possible in the process although this is not always possible as error cases will continue to arise as cases are processed.  

This year the Department introduced the concept of preliminary checks for BPS online applicants.  This involved the Department notifying online BPS applicants of non-compliance in the areas of overclaims, dualclaims, and overlaps in the weeks following the closing date for BPS (16 May).  Applicants were then given an opportunity to rectify any identified non-compliance before 20 June and there was no penalty or reduction where such non-compliance was fully rectified.

In total, some 12,000 BPS error notifications have issued to applicants.  In response to requests from stakeholder groups, text messages also issue in these cases to inform the farmer that an error has arisen.

Payments under the BPS commenced on 17th October, which is the earliest possible date allowable under regulation, and to date in excess of €772m has issued to over 117,000 applicants. Regular payment runs are continuing in order to clear to payment all applicants whose applications are fully processed and who have no outstanding errors.

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