Vol. 572 No. 3
213 Mr. Ring asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food the reason a REP scheme 2 application for a person (details supplied) in County Mayo was cancelled by his Department three months after its submission due to its containing a clerical error; and the further reason his Department did not contact this person for clarification and correction of the error. [23028/03]
The application in this case was returned to the applicant on 1 October. As an accredited paying agency for European Union funds, my Department is obliged to carry out checks on all applications. When this application was being checked, my officials noted that an incorrect land parcel identification system, LPIS, number had been included for rented land which formed part of the holding and an incorrect river catchment number had been included for owned land. LPIS numbers in particular are an important element in the controls which my Department must operate since they provide unique identifiers establishing which land parcels are subject to REPS farming practices. LPIS numbers are also crucial to ensure that no under or over-declaration of lands has taken place. It is, therefore, imperative that the LPIS numbers quoted in REPS plans are correct. It was for that reason the application was returned for correction. The error in the river catchment was also highlighted for the applicant to enable it to also be corrected. A revised plan was received on 8 October and is currently being processed for payment.
Because of the large volume of REPS applications that my officials must process, together with the constraints imposed by the detailed control procedures approved by the European Commission, it is not possible at present to operate a less formal system for correcting errors. However, these procedures remain under review and I have asked my officials to consider how they can be streamlined in the context of the proposals for changes to the scheme which I will shortly put before the European Commission.
