Government policies on equality are adhered to in all measures undertaken and all programmes, schemes and services of the Department of Agriculture and Food, including headage, REP scheme and TB and brucellosis eradication scheme grants. These payments are equally available to men and women, thus ensuring that there is no discrimination on the grounds of gender. The Department makes payments to all eligible applicants who comply with the terms and conditions governing the schemes regardless of their gender or marital status.
Where two or more applicants are associated, for example father-son or husband-wife-partner, the Department must be satisfied that their farming enterprises are operated as separate, individual economic units before grants can be paid. Where there is evidence that this is not the case they are treated as a joint application and their herds as one herd for the purposes of payment of grants. The EU Commission has indicated conditions and requirements with regard to the creation of new holdings in the context of premia payments. Likewise, there is no sex discrimination in the allocation of herd numbers. A father-son management team is required to meet the same criteria as a husband-wife-partner team when they propose to split an enterprise and create two separate units. Women should have the same entitlement to grants and premia and the different programmes operated by the Department if they meet the eligibility requirements laid down for all other participants.
