Brendan Smith
Question:506. Deputy Brendan Smith asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine when REPS 4 and AEOS payments will issue in respect of 2014; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [34680/14]
View answerWednesday, 17 September 2014
Questions (506)
Written answers
Area-based schemes under the Rural Development Programme, 2007-13, are subject to EU Regulations which require detailed administrative checks on all applications, including cross checks with the Land Parcel Identification System, to be completed before payments can issue. These rigorous procedures, together with on-farm inspections, apply to a number of scheme payments including the Agri-environment Options Scheme (AEOS) and REPS and are necessary to ensure that applications meet the scheme conditions and cross-compliance requirements. In line with the governing Regulations, payments issue in two tranches, 75% payment and 25% payment. It is anticipated that a substantial number of 75% and 25 % payments will issue in the last quarter of 2014 with the remainder issuing in early 2015.