Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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Wild Bird Cover (WBC) is one of the actions undertaken by participants in each of the three tranches of the Green Low carbon Agri-environment Scheme (GLAS). The Terms and Conditions of each tranche of the Scheme state that actions whether on owned, leased or rented land must be delivered for the entire period of the contract’ subject to certain provisions.

The GLAS contractual period for GLAS 3 participants ends on 31st December 2021, while the contractual period for those participants in GLAS 1 and GLAS 2 who extended their contracts now also ends on that date. Those participants who currently avail of the WBC action are accordingly required to continue to undertake the specified tasks associated with the action until end December 2021.

It should, however, be noted that the 10th amendment to the Rural Development Programme, which was recently approved by the EU Commission, provides for the possibility for the extension of the GLAS scheme in 2022. As with all relevant Rural Development schemes, consideration of an extension will be subject to the availability of national funding through the annual budget process in the autumn. If any changes are made to the terms and conditions of a scheme, the Department will notify the participants accordingly.

Brendan Griffin (Kerry, Fine Gael)
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572. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if a beef data and genomics programme payment will issue to a farmer (details supplied) in County Kerry; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35917/21]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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The Department carried out checks ahead of the 2020 BDGP payments. These checks included a review of the stock bull/AI replacement requirement for 2019. The review determined that the person named had not met the stock bull replacement requirements for 2019 and, therefore, a penalty was applied against payment for 2019 in accordance with the terms and conditions of the programme. This penalty has now been processed and payment in respect of the 2020 scheme year will issue shortly.

For 2021, the scheme was extended to participants who had already met the requirements for the full six-year duration of BDGP 2015-2020. One of these requirements is the 2019 stock bull/AI requirement.

The Terms and Conditions of the scheme state "For applicants using a stock bull, at least one stock bull must be on the holding on 30^thJune 2019 must have been a genotyped 4 or 5 star bull on either the Terminal or Replacement Index (on a within or across breed basis) at the time of purchase. For applicants using AI, at least 80% of the AI used on the participating holding must have been from 4 or 5 star bulls on either the Terminal or Replacement Index (on a within or across breed basis). Applicants using both stock bulls and AI must satisfy both requirements."As the person named did not meet the Stock Bull Replacement Strategy, he is therefore ineligible to extend his participation in the programme into 2021.

A letter issue to the person named on 14^thApril 2021 informing them of the decision and advising them of their right to have this decision reviewed. To date, no such review has been received.