Written Answers Nos. 169 - 176
169. Deputy Patrick O'Donovan asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of appeals that have been received by his Department regarding the digitisation of forestry holdings for the years 2012 and January to September 2013; the number of these appeals that were successful; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42815/13]
View answerThere were six such appeals received in 2012 of which one was successful. For the year 2013 to date fifty four such appeals have been received. Of these twenty five cases have been determined of which five were successful.
170. Deputy Éamon Ó Cuív asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if a person (details supplied) in County Galway who is participating in the Twelve Bins/Maam Turk Complex can amend their agri-environment option scheme plan to allow them to put sheep back on the hill due to the fact that the Twelve Bins/Mam Turk Complex Scheme is not being renewed after November; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42843/13]
View answerI am aware that the Twelve Bins/Maam Turk Complex Scheme, which the National Parks and Wildlife Service put in place for the purpose of regenerating these commonages, expires on 1 November, 2013. The future management of these commonage lands will now be considered in the wider context of the ongoing examination of issues relating to all Commonages. This process will involve the farmers directly managing the lands, relevant stakeholders, the farming organisations and all other interested stakeholders. The aim is to achieve a practical solution which will ensure that the farmers actively farming these lands are protected and that the land is maintained or returned to GAEC and that the requirements of the governing EU regulations are met.
171. Deputy Éamon Ó Cuív asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the reason payment under the disadvantaged area based scheme did not issue to a person (details supplied) in County Galway; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42844/13]
View answerAn application under the 2013 Single Payment Scheme/Disadvantaged Areas Scheme was received from the person named on 26 February 2013, following processing of which an over-claim was identified in respect of a parcel declared by the person named. The person named was subsequently notified of the over-claim and, as the resultant penalty on Disadvantaged areas is greater than 20%, no payment is due under this Scheme. However, it remains open to the person named to submit an application seeking a review of the decision in his case; such an application should be supported by any necessary evidence.
172. Deputy John O'Mahony asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine when a person (details supplied) in County Mayo will receive their farm payments; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42848/13]
View answerThe person named submitted a Single Farm Payment/ Disadvantaged Area application form on 14 May 2013. Applications were also submitted to my Department on 14 May, 2013 requesting the transfer of 5.72 and 8.57 Single Payment entitlements to the person named. Following contact between officials in my Department and the relevant parties, issues arising from errors on the transfer application forms were resolved and these applications were subsequently processed.
Payment in respect of the Disadvantaged Area Scheme will issue shortly to the person named. A 50% advance payment under the Single Farm Payment Scheme will commence on 16 October and I expect that payment will issue to the person named on that date.
173. Deputy Denis Naughten asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will reverse the decision to close all public District Veterinary Offices desks throughout the country in view of the low computer literacy skills of many older farmers; if he will ensure that a number of regional public desks are established; if he will ensure that the Roscommon office provides such a service in view of its strategic location; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42859/13]
View answerMy Department has not made any decision to close down all public District Veterinary Offices. The position is that, following on from the successful restructuring of my Department’s local office network, which reduced the number of local offices from 58 to 16, my Department has decided to centralise the administrative support currently provided in the local offices into two offices, Cavan and Portlaoise.
The decision to centralise the administrative support is based on a review by the Department of the business processes and procedures and, in particular, the administrative support requirements, in its remaining Local Offices. Arising from this review, the Department introduced a number of significant changes earlier this year to the procedures in relation to the implementation of controls in the context of the TB eradication programme. These changes and, in particular, the decision not to take up passports from restricted herds and to abolish the movement permit requirement for clear cattle in restricted herds, combined with the eradication of Brucellosis and a substantial reduction in the incidence of TB in the country, has significantly reduced the administrative staffing requirement in the local offices. In light of these developments, the review concluded that further significant efficiencies in terms of the number of administrative staff required will accrue from the centralisation of administrative support in one or more centralised office(s).
My Department is in the process of implementing this recommendation and has already transferred the administrative functions out of a number of local offices, including Clonakilty, Limerick and Tipperary. The transfer of the administrative functions out of other regional offices, including Roscommon, will be considered in light of the availability of opportunities to redeploy the staff concerned to support other critical public services.
Centralising administrative procedures will enable my Department to reduce the number of administrative staff it requires to support Veterinary Office operations and, accordingly, the cost of providing its services. This is in line with Government policy. In addition, the centralisation of administrative functions will facilitate the re-deployment of staff from the regional offices to other State agencies and, thereby, enable the Government to provide services through these agencies more efficiently.
I would like to emphasise that the centralisation of the administrative functions of the local offices should not negatively impact upon local access and services for local customers and experience to-date indicates that there has been no negative impact on the services provided by these offices. The Department vets, inspectors and technical officers will remain in place at these offices to service our clients across all of the schemes that are provided from our Regional Offices. In view of this, I am satisfied that frontline services will be fully maintained and public access for all of the Departments stakeholders will continue to be available at the 16 regional offices, including Roscommon.
174. Deputy Michael Healy-Rae asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if a person (details supplied) has had a deduction taken off their area based payment following on from their land being digitized. [42893/13]
View answerThe person named submitted an application for Single Payment on 2 May 2013 and declared four land parcels, which represented a claimed area of 83.25 hectares. Following a review by my Department of the eligibility of the land parcels declared, two of these parcels declared by the applicant included ineligible features, i.e. buildings, roads, rock and scrub amounting to an ineligible area of 2.57 hectares. Such areas are not eligible for payment under the Direct Payment Schemes such as the Single Payment Scheme and the Disadvantaged Areas Scheme.
The person named was notified of the position regarding these two parcels by letter dated 21 September 2013. The applicant submitted an application to my Department for a review of this decision on 3 October 2013. However, the person named did not provide any information to substantiate her application. It is open to her to submit supporting documentation to support this appeal.
Payments under the Disadvantaged Areas Scheme issued to the person named on 7 October 2013 based on the maximum area payable of 34 hectares, as the determined area was greater than 34 hectares. The issue of payments under the Single Payment Scheme will commence on 16 October and the amount to issue to the applicant will be based on the reduced area pending the outcome of the review.
175. Deputy Áine Collins asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the payments that have been made to a person (details supplied). [42917/13]
View answerApplications under the 2011 Single Payment and Disadvantaged Areas schemes were received from the person named and payments issued. The person named passed away on 25 January 2012.
An application was made by the legal personal representatives of the person named on 15 May 2012 under the 2012 Single Payment and Disadvantaged Areas Scheme. Payments issued to the estate of the person named on receipt of the testamentary documents.
An application was received from the legal personal representative to transfer the single payment entitlements to another person in the 2013 scheme year. This application was accepted and both parties were notified on 3 July 2013.
176. Deputy Brendan Smith asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine when an application will be finalised in respect of a company (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42920/13]
View answerApplications for approval to operate meat processing plants must meet the requirements of the European Communities (Food and Feed Hygiene) Regulations 2009 (S.I. 432 of 2009) and related EU Regulations. The applicant in this instance has upon request provided clarification in relation to the proposed range and scale of activities. As a consequence one of the preconditions for approval has been adjusted and the applicant has been notified accordingly. The onus is on the applicant to meet the conditions of approval.
