Eugene Murphy (Roscommon-Galway, Fianna Fail)
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555. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the status of an application under the 2016 basic payment scheme greening payment for a person (details supplied); the reason his Department did not acknowledge receipt of comments supplied by the person on the control report of the outcome of the remote sensing inspection; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8580/17]

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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The person named submitted a 2016 Basic Payment/Areas of Natural Constraint schemes application on 5 April 2016. EU Regulations governing the administration of these schemes require that full and comprehensive administrative checks, including in some cases remote sensing (i.e. satellite) inspections, be completed before any payments issue.

The application of the person named was selected for a Remote Sensing eligibility inspection. This inspection identified an over-declaration in area exceeding 10% of the area claimed. This resulted in the area determined being reduced by 1.5 times the difference between the area claimed and area determined. Payments due under the Basic Payment/Greening Scheme, taking account of the above, issued to the nominated bank account of the person named on 24 November 2016 and 1 December 2016.

The person named was notified of final outcome of the inspection on 21 November 2016. The person named submitted comments on the inspection findings, which were received by my Department on 24 November. As priority was given to the processing of cases to finalisation it was not possible to issue acknowledgements where comments were submitted.

As part of the review process and in order to verify the position on the ground, my Department arranged for a field visit to be undertaken. This field visit was completed and the outcome of this process was an increase in the area eligible for payment. The person named was notified of the outcome of the review on 17 February 2017. An additional payment due under the Basic Payment/Greening Scheme has now been processed and is issuing to the nominated bank account of the person named this week.

In the event that the person named is dissatisfied with the outcome of the review, the decision can be appealed to the independent Agriculture Appeals Office, within 3 months.