Vol. 550 No. 4
225 Mr. Dukes asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Rural Development if his Department will consider an application by a person (details supplied) in County Kildare to undertake the 20-hour REP scheme training in view of the fact that the person's spouse cannot participate. [8777/02]
The conditions governing the rural environment protection scheme, which have been approved by the EU Commission, specifically require the beneficiary of the scheme to attend the appropriate training course. It is not permitted for any other person to attend the course on behalf of the beneficiary. In the case of joint participants in REPS, however, one participant may be nominated to attend the course. He or she must then complete the full course.
In recognition of the fact that some participants may have other commitments and to minimize any inconvenience to them and make the courses more accessible, my Department has agreed that planning agencies who are approved to conduct training courses may run courses during the day, on evenings or a combination of both.
It is open to any scheme participant to amend their plan to reflect a change to joint participation with another person(s). In all cases where plans are amended, a complete amended plan is required, in this case in the joint names of the participants. Future REPS payments would issue in the name(s) on the plan.
Participants who may be contemplating such a change should discuss the implications in detail with their REPS planner. In particular, they should note that joint participation means that in the event of one participant being unable to continue farming for whatever reason, the other will be required to continue and/or would become liable for any debt/penalties/etc incurred under REPS.
This is the response that has been conveyed to a number of REPS planners who have contacted this division by phone with similar enquiries.
