Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 29 November 2012
217. Deputy Joe Carey asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will report on an appeal regarding the Burren farming for conservation programme in respect of a person (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [53478/12]
View answerIn 2010, my Department invited applications from eligible farmers in the Burren to participate in the Burren Farming for Conservation Programme. As total funding available under the Programme is €1 million per annum, it was necessary, at the outset, to place an upper limit on the number of places in the Programme in order to maximise its effectiveness within the budgetary provision. Since the numbers who applied to enter the Programme greatly exceeded the number of places available, all applications were assessed and ranked according to specific criteria. The person named was an eligible applicant but did not score sufficiently highly on the basis of the criteria laid down to be included in the Programme. The applicant was notified of this outcome by letter dated 29 July 2010. Applicants were advised of the opportunity to appeal their scoring by 19 August 2010, should any of the data used have required correction. The person named did not appeal at that time but has since appealed the Department's decision in a letter dated 6 September 2012. Unfortunately, my Department had to reject the appeal as it was over two years late.
