Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 12 February 2015
130. Deputy Noel Coonan asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine when payments for 2012 and 2013 under the disadvantaged areas scheme will be finalised in respect of a person (details supplied) in County Tipperary; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6460/15]
View answerUnder 2012 and 2013 Disadvantaged Areas Schemes, there were criteria to be satisfied in relation to those applicants availing of equines to meet the minimum stocking density requirement. First, the holding itself must meet the definition of an Equine Breeding Enterprise and second, horses, in order to be taken into account for stocking density purposes, must be aged one to five years and, where older, must be a breeding mare for the purposes of the Scheme and recorded as in the ownership of the applicant. The person named submitted four equine passports to my Department, in respect of mares over the age of five of which there were no foals recorded in any of the preceding three years. Therefore, as the requirements of the Scheme were not met, no payment is due to the person named under the 2012 and 2013 Disadvantaged Areas Scheme.
