Vol. 542 No. 6
141 Mr. N. O'Keeffe asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Rural Development if he will accept instalment payments from a person (details supplied) in County Cork in respect of an overpayment of a REP scheme payment. [25574/01]
The person named joined REPS in 1996. To remain in the scheme he would have had to submit an application for his second annual payment before the end of his second year, namely by 31 January 1998. However, he did not do so and he was, therefore, deemed to have withdrawn from the scheme. My Department then had to recoup the payment he had received. He was first notified of the debt, which then stood at £5,008.13, in March 1998. My Department has since recovered £1,187.02 from direct payments to which the person named was entitled under other schemes, but as he had not offered or consented to any repayment arrangements my Department was obliged by EU regulations to levy interest on the balance and, as of 1 June 2001, the net amount that he owed stood at £5,163.04.
In May 2001 the person named wrote to my Department offering to pay off the balance by instalments at the end of each year. In June, my Department replied offering him the option of monthly repayments and pointing out that if he agreed to this and made an initial repayment no further interest would be applied. He has not responded and arrangements have been made to continue recouping the debt from other payments to which he would be entitled. My Department is prepared to accept quarterly payments if the balance of the debt is repaid within four years. The person named should now contact my officials to confirm the arrangement.
