Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 9 July 2015
142. Deputy Dara Calleary asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the position regarding a payment to a person (details supplied) in County Mayo under the rural environment protection scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28057/15]
View answerAs outlined in the reply to Parliamentary Question No. 433 of 26 May 2015, the person named completed the full term of his contract in the scheme. However, in 2013 it emerged that although the person named had claimed for 27/298 shares in the commonage, the ownership documents showed 9/298 shares only. Therefore, there was an over-claimed amount of 49.34 hectares of commonage for the years up to 2012 and this resulted in a clawback of REPS payments already made prior to 2012 and a further reduction within his 2012 Scheme Year payment. The person named was notified by the Department’s local office by letter dated 13th June 2013 that he had a total debt on his REPS 4 contract in the amount of €25,693.66 arising from reductions in the contract area for previous years (2008 – 2011). He was notified at that time that the amount may be recouped from future Department payments due to him.
The person named was subsequently notified by letter from the Department dated 27th June 2013 that there was also a further in-payment penalty specific to the 2012 REPS 4 Scheme Year of €10,647.82 for the same issue.
The person named was further contacted by letter dated 6th January 2014 from the Regional Inspector, confirming that his contract area was reduced as a result of the overclaim of his share in the commonage lands. He was also advised at that stage of the right to appeal to the Agriculture Appeals Office if he was not satisfied with this decision. There is no record of an appeal being made to the Appeals Office in this case.
The person named was given details of the breakdown of how these clawbacks and penalties arose in an explanatory letter from the Department. An amount of €20,813.71 has already been recouped through the REPS 4 Scheme and other Department Schemes. There remains an outstanding debt due to the Department of €15,528.07.
In relation to other schemes, all applications in respect of Single Payment (SPS) and Disadvantaged Area Schemes (DAS) have been processed in full for all years. No payment issued in respect of SPS in 2012 as an over-claim of greater than 20% in respect of commonage land was identified. The applicant was requested to submit documentation in respect of the commonage land in question and insufficient evidence was provided to avert the penalty. To date no further evidence has been submitted in respect of 2012 scheme year.
Applications in respect of 2013 and 2014 for SPS and DAS have been fully processed and any moneys due under these schemes have been offset against the outstanding REPS debt.
