Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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890. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if flexibility will be allowed with regard to the administration of the BDGP scheme to allow a young farmer to change farming enterprise without having to repay the payments received to date for participation in the scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45834/17]

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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Payments under BDGP and BDGP II are based on the full completion of specified actions over the course of six years which were designed to improve the genetic merit of a beef farmer’s herd. Section 13 of the scheme’s Terms and Conditions states that

‘Where a contract is terminated by an applicant all monies paid under the Programme shall be repaid to the Department except in cases of Force Majeure.’

Should any applicant who withdraws from the scheme prematurely wish, they can make a case for scheme participation termination under the force majeure categories detailed in the Terms and Conditions booklet. The Terms and Conditions for both BDGP and BDGP II are available at the following link: .

It should be noted that the Department has no discretion to apply a force majeure scheme termination outside these parameters, which were agreed as part of Ireland’s Rural Development Programme 2014/2020.