Brendan Griffin (Kerry, Fine Gael)
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795. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine when a payment will issue to a person (details supplied) in County Kerry. [59453/22]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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The Sheep Welfare Scheme is an animal welfare scheme that was introduced in December 2016, initially as a four year scheme. Existing sheep farmers who wished to participate in the scheme were required to submit an application to join the scheme by the closing date of 3rd February 2017.

As set out in the terms and conditions of Year 1 of the scheme, participants in the scheme who wished to continue into Year 2 of the scheme were required to complete and return a Notification of Continuation form to the Department. This form was issued by the Department to all participants in Year 1 of the scheme.

Where a Notification of Continuation form was not completed and returned to the Department by a participant in the scheme, the participant was deemed to have withdrawn from the scheme. As per the terms and conditions of the scheme, where an applicant withdrew from the scheme, it was not possible to rejoin the scheme in subsequent years.

The person named submitted an application to participate in Year 1 of the scheme on 22nd January 2017. The application to join the scheme was successful and the applicant received payment for year 1 of the scheme.

The Department issued the Notification of Continuation sheet to all participants in Year 1 of the scheme. However, the Department has no record of having received the completed Notification of Continuation form from the person named as required under the terms and conditions of the scheme. As a result, the person named was deemed to have withdrawn from the scheme and no payment was due to the person named for Year 2 or subsequent years of the scheme.

No communication was received from the person named following the issue of the continuation sheet by my Department until the Deputy submitted a Parliamentary Question requesting the status of the person named under the Sheep Welfare Scheme in September 2022.

In my response to this Parliamentary Question, I set out the position as outlined above in regards to the status of the person named under the Sheep Welfare Scheme. My Department has not received any further correspondence from the person named in relation to this matter since that date until the current Parliamentary Question was submitted by the Deputy in relation to the person named.

Should the person named feel that there are exceptional circumstances that may explain why there was no contact from them with my Department in regards to this matter, they should now advise the Sheep Welfare Scheme section of my Department in writing of this, providing any relevant supporting documentation and the circumstances of this case will be reviewed by staff of the section.

Please note my Department is now accepting applications for the new Sheep Improvement Scheme. This scheme, which replaces the existing Sheep Welfare Scheme under the new CAP, is open to all sheep farmers with breeding ewes.

Further details regarding the Sheep Improvement Scheme are available on my Department’s website. The closing date for applications to the scheme is the 19th December 2022.