In 1998, the person named included lands in his area aid application which were already included in another person's REPS plan. The person named was himself also in REPS. In these circumstances my Department had no option but to consider all the lands to be one single farming unit, which was eligible for only one REPS payment.
Both parties were informed directly of this position. They were invited to submit a joint application for REPS including all the lands. They did not avail of this invitation and so my Department had to seek full recovery of all the REPS payments that both had received. Recovery of the REPS payments received by the person named is continuing by way of withholding payments for which he is eligible under other EU-funded schemes. These cases have been reviewed in my Department, and the foregoing is my Department's decision based on all the information available. It is open to the person named and the other party to seek to include all the lands in a new single application for REPS, subject to satisfactory arrangements for full recovery of the outstanding debts in both cases.