Vol. 554 No. 5
336 Mr. Connaughton asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food when the 2001 extensification grant payment will be made to a person (details supplied) in County Galway; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16423/02]
The person named participated in the 2001 extensification premium opting for the census system. Herdowners were notified by individual letter of each of the five census dates for 2001. When notified of the third census date, the notification letter requested herdowners to return their completed CEN.1 forms to the Department by Friday, 5 October 2001. The CEN.1 form catered for the first three of five census dates while the CEN.2 catered for the remaining two. When notified of the fifth date, herdowners were requested to return their completed CEN.2 forms by Friday, 18 January 2002. Some weeks after the passing of the respective closing dates, those herdowners who had still not returned their CEN.1 and-or CEN.2 forms were issued with reminder letters giving them a final opportunity to do so. The Department continued to accept census forms lodged up to Friday, 17 May 2002.
The person named did not return his CEN.1 or CEN.2 forms to the Department. The relevant EU regulation requires that on-farm checks must be carried out on 10% of herdowners who participate in extensification premium. The purpose of these checks is to establish whether discrepancies exist between animal numbers as declared on CEN.1 and 2 forms vis-à-vis what was actually found to have been present on holdings on the census dates checked. Cases are selected for on-farm checks using a risk analysis process that is structured on animal number declarations made by herdowners on the census CEN.1 and 2 forms. Where CEN.1 and-or CEN.2 forms are not returned to the Department, the case simply cannot be selected for any check because there are no declarations made on which the check itself can be compared against.
In view of the events as outlined, I regret the person named cannot be considered for payment of extensification premium for 2001. The person named was paid his full entitlements under the 2001 suckler cow premium, 2001 ewe premium and the 2001 area-based compensatory allowance schemes.
