Vol. 509 No. 6
249 Mr. Kenny asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Rural Development the reason an area aid application by a person (details supplied) in County Mayo has not been dealt with; if he will examine the case; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21525/99]
The applicant named increased the size of his claim in his 1999 area aid application from 9.71 hectares in 1998, to 10.18 hectares in 1999. The details on the maps supplied were entered on the Departments' electronic database, and the total area found was 9.74 hectares. This represents a difference of 0.44 hectares or 4.52 per cent between the area claimed and that found on inspection. Under Article 9 of EU Regulation 3887/92, no penalty is applied when the difference is less than 3 per cent, the penalty is based on double the difference when it is between 3 per cent and 20 per cent and when the difference is over 20 per cent, a 100 per cent penalty must be applied. Therefore in this case a penalty of 0.88 had to be applied leaving the area found at 8.86 hectares. Any payments due will issue as soon as possible.
