John Ellis
Question:177 Mr. Ellis asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food if his Department will now award a balance of premiums and extensification due for 2001 to a person (details supplied) in County Leitrim. [13969/03]
Written Answers. - Grant Payments.
The person named applied for premium for 57 animals under the 2001 suckler cow premium scheme. An 80% advance instalment for €9,400.44 issued to him on 28 November 2001. Under the terms and conditions of the scheme producers with more than 15 reckonable livestock units may be paid premium on up to two reckonable livestock units per hectare of the forage area of his-her holding as established from the producer's 2001 area aid application. Any cattle submitted for 2001 suckler cow and special beef premium over and above the two livestock units limit shall not be paid such premium. The livestock units are calculated taking into account male cattle on which the producer applies for special beef premium, ewes submitted for 2001 ewe premium, notional dairy cows needed to produce any milk quota held and suckler cows or heifers for which suckler cow premium has been requested. The area aid record for the person named shows 74.82 hectares of forage area which would allow payment on a maximum of 149.64 livestock units. At balance payment stage a recalculation of the amount due under the 2001 suckler cow scheme found that the person named had been paid on 111.20 livestock units under the special beef premium scheme and 7.05 livestock units under the ewe premium scheme leaving 31.39 livestock units of suckler cow payable at a rate of €206.15. No balance payment was therefore due and the overpayment incurred has since been recovered from moneys due under 2001 special beef and 2001 ewe premium balances.
The person named has been paid in full in respect of 168 animals under the special beef premium scheme 2001.
The person named participated in 2001 extensification premium opting for the census system. Based on the bovine animal number declarations made by the person named on his CEN.1 and 2 forms at all five census dates, the stocking density of the holding for 2001 was 2.3492 livestock units per hectare. Due to foot and mouth disease control measures that were in place during the early part of 2001, a 0.8 coefficient was applied to the livestock unit value of the animals declared by herdowners in respect of the first and second census dates in 2001 in compliance with EU Commission Regulation 1900/2000. When the coefficient was applied to the livestock unit value of the animals declared by the person named at the first two census dates, it reduced the stocking density to 2.1590 livestock units per hectare. This was still in excess of the 2.0 livestock unit per hectare limit that would enable my Department to pay extensification premium in this case.
Michael Ring
Question:178 Mr. Ring asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food the reason parcels of lands were omitted from a REP scheme payment which issued to a person (details supplied) in County Mayo. [14014/03]
The person named applied for REPS on 31 January this year. His application was approved and his REPS contract runs from 1 February 2003. He has been paid in full for all the land parcels that he claimed as eligible for payment in his plan.
Two of the land parcels referred to are commonage plots. The applicant correctly declared them in his plan as ineligible for payment, since they were not declared for area aid in 2000 or 2001. The other two land parcels are included in the plan as owned land. They were declared in the applicant's name for area aid for the first time in 2002. They are eligible for payment and he is being paid on them.