Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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211. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine when payment will issue to a person (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7594/18]

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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The Knowledge Transfer Programme is delivered under Ireland's Rural Development Programme (RDP) 2014-2020 by a network of approved Knowledge Transfer Facilitators. Facilitators who complete all of the requirements of the programme receive a payment of €500 per participant of for each year of the three year programme. Facilitator payments under the Knowledge Transfer Programme have commenced on a rolling basis by sector.

The person named is an approved Knowledge Transfer facilitator running 5 groups in the Knowledge Transfer Beef Programme. Under EU Regulations, payments to participant farmers must be processed via the Knowledge Transfer Group facilitators. Facilitators are required to process the payment to the farmers in his/her group and to confirm the completion of this transaction to my Department within a specified timeframe via the online Knowledge Transfer system. The person named has not completed this confirmation process, and thus a penalty arose under the Terms and Conditions of the Scheme.

An appeal in this regard was received from the person named and has now been completed. This appeal has been upheld, and the person named will be notified of this outcome.