Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein)
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48. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine his views on whether it is justifiable to penalise farmers whose land was burned in 2017 through no fault of their own by removing burned land from their 2018 BPS applications. [18214/18]

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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In order to qualify for payment under the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS), an applicant must have an eligible hectare of land in respect of each entitlement held by them. In accordance with the land eligibility rules, where land has been burned between the period of 1 March and 31 August of any given year it is not eligible for payment under the BPS for that scheme year.

My Department actively investigates incidents of illegal burning using satellite imagery. As part of this process for the 2017 scheme year, a number of hectares of land were identified as having been burned outside of the permitted timeframes. Accordingly, this land was not eligible for the purpose of a BPS payment in 2017.

As part of the 2018 BPS application process, applicants were issued with documentation by post relating to the 2018 BPS/Greening schemes, in addition to a statement of land declared by them under the 2017 BPS and other Direct Payment Schemes and associated maps for the land parcels listed.

The land details and maps provided represented, at the time of issue, the most up to date 2017 position for the land parcels listed and reflected the eligibility position of lands that were burned between the period 1 March and 31 August 2017.

With regard to land that is not eligible for payment as a result of having been burned outside of the permitted timeframes, this land is, in the normal course of events, eligible for payment under the BPS for the following scheme year.

For the 2018 scheme year, all applications must be submitted through the Departments online application system. The land details and maps available to BPS applicants on the online system have been updated to show the most current information available for 2018, including land that was burned outside the permitted time frame in the 2017 scheme year, but which is subsequently eligible for payment under the BPS in 2018. Applicants who had burnt land in 2017 will be able to include that land in their BPS application for 2018.