Written Answers Nos. 797-811
797. Deputy Jackie Cahill asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine how much balancing money is due to farmers under the 2015 basic payment scheme application; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13145/16]
View answerTo date, 126,109 farmers have received payments totalling €1.15 billion under the 2015 Basic Payment Scheme (BPD). The process of definitively establishing entitlements under the 2015 BPS and issuing relevant statements to farmers is currently being finalised. The final balancing payment (approximately 3%) to issue to farmers will be calculated and issued shortly after the completion of the establishment of entitlements process.
798. Deputy Jackie Cahill asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine how many farmers were eligible for the young farmers and national reserve in 2015 and how much was paid out; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13146/16]
View answerMy Department received just over 7,000 applications under the 2015 National Reserve and almost 9,000 applications under the 2015 Young Farmers Scheme. To date some 6,900 applications under the National Reserve and some 8,800 applications under the Young Farmers Scheme have been fully processed. In the case of outstanding applications, issues pertaining to registration of herd numbers, entitlement registration and agricultural educational qualifications need to be verified for applicants. My Department is engaged in ongoing correspondence with applicants requesting additional documentation where this is required to facilitate final processing of their applications. A number of applicants have yet to respond and these cases cannot be fully processed until replies are received. Once the relevant documents have been received the outstanding applications will be finalised, with a view to payment issuing as soon as possible thereafter.
Details on the number of successful applicants under the National Reserve and the Young Farmers Scheme and the level of funds paid will be available once all remaining cases are finalised, including cases where appeals have been received from applicants who were notified that their applications were unsuccessful and who have availed of the right to appeal this decision.
799. Deputy Jackie Cahill asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will provide a county by county breakdown of areas of natural constraint payments in 2015; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13147/16]
View answerA total of 103,763 applications were received under the 2015 Areas of Natural Constraints Scheme, of which 96,002 applications have been paid to date. Of those applications outstanding, a large number will not meet the eligibility requirements and therefore will not become eligible for payment.
|
County |
Applied |
Paid |
Amount € |
|
Carlow |
763 |
701 |
1,469,913.39 |
|
Cavan |
4897 |
4644 |
9,433,404.42 |
|
Clare |
6171 |
5846 |
13,078,110.30 |
|
Cork |
7227 |
6709 |
15,396,165.32 |
|
Donegal |
8782 |
7904 |
18,082,649.33 |
|
Dublin |
152 |
126 |
268,684.45 |
|
Galway |
12447 |
11418 |
23,949,780.60 |
|
Kerry |
7807 |
7263 |
17,149,189.82 |
|
Kildare |
531 |
479 |
893,280.81 |
|
Kilkenny |
1789 |
1632 |
3,445,623.71 |
|
Laois |
1736 |
1598 |
3,165,380.13 |
|
Leitrim |
3534 |
3295 |
7,164,508.91 |
|
Limerick |
2977 |
2768 |
5,376,278.59 |
|
Longford |
2405 |
2257 |
4,628,470.29 |
|
Louth |
806 |
712 |
1,218,709.92 |
|
Mayo |
11840 |
10956 |
22,819,489.60 |
|
Meath |
1361 |
1259 |
2,240,116.30 |
|
Monaghan |
4141 |
3899 |
7,298,318.56 |
|
Offaly |
2441 |
2263 |
4,365,706.32 |
|
Roscommon |
5798 |
5404 |
11,251,813.13 |
|
Sligo |
4079 |
3800 |
7,893,262.34 |
|
Tipperary |
4569 |
4244 |
8,912,458.98 |
|
Waterford |
1451 |
1327 |
2,847,216.16 |
|
Westmeath |
2702 |
2522 |
4,821,232.84 |
|
Wexford |
1512 |
1323 |
2,467,013.16 |
|
Wicklow |
1845 |
1653 |
3,908,417.98 |
800. Deputy Michael Healy-Rae asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the status of an application for a farm payment by a person (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13163/16]
View answerThe person named submitted an application for allocation of entitlements under the ‘Scottish Derogation’ measure of the 2015 Basic Payment Scheme.
EU Regulations governing the Basic Payment Scheme require administrative and on farm checks and verification of land details submitted under the scheme. These checks are now being finalised for the person named and my Department will correspond directly with him in the coming days in relation to his Scottish Derogation application.
801. Deputy Michael Healy-Rae asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the status of an application for a farm payment appeal by a person (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13165/16]
View answerThe person named submitted a 2015 Basic Payment /Areas of Natural Constraint Scheme application on 29 April 2015. EU Regulations governing the administration of these schemes require that full and comprehensive administrative checks, including in some cases on-farm inspections, be completed before any payments issue.
The application of the person named was selected for a Ground Eligibility inspection. The inspection identified discrepancies between the areas declared and the area found resulting in an over-declaration in area of greater than 50%. Based on the terms and conditions of the schemes this resulted in no payments being due under the 2015 Direct Payments Scheme and the application of an administrative fine to be offset against any future EU payments.
The person named was notified of the inspection outcome on 16 November 2015 and appealed this decision to the District Inspector. The outcome of this appeal was to uphold the inspection findings.
The person named has appealed to the independent Agriculture Appeals Office and that process is currently ongoing. At the end of this process if the person named feels that they have been treated unfairly they can raise the matter with the Office of the Ombudsman.
802. Deputy Michael Healy-Rae asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the status of an application by a person (details supplied) under the agri-environment options scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13166/16]
View answerThe person named commenced his AEOS contract on 1st September 2010. Payment issued in respect of the 2010-2014 Scheme years.
Under the EU Regulations governing the Scheme and other area-based payment schemes, a comprehensive administrative check, including cross-checks with the Land Parcel Identification System must take place. As all AEOS 1 participants will be receiving their final payments under the scheme, re-checks on payments made for all scheme years must be completed before final payment is processed. In this case, these checks have been completed and payment in respect of the 2015 scheme year minus any over payments due to the Department issued in two parts: 85% on 29 April 2016 and the remaining 15% on 3 May 2016.
803. Deputy Michael Healy-Rae asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the status of an application by a person (details supplied) under the targeted agricultural modernisation scheme 2; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13169/16]
View answerThe applicant has applied under the Young Farmer Capital Investment Scheme and his application has been selected for approval under the Ranking and Selection System following the administrative checks. It is envisaged that approval will issue very shortly once the final technical aspects of the application are examined.
804. Deputy Niamh Smyth asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of prosecutions to date under the Animal Health and Welfare Act 2013; the number of prosecutions initiated for illegal puppy farming; the outcomes of same; and his future plans in the area. [13181/16]
View answerThe Animal Health and Welfare Act 2013 is a legal instrument with wide application and potential use by a range of authorised officers in a wide variety of settings. Local authorities, An Garda Síochána and officials of my Department are empowered to take prosecutions under the Act.
To date, over 50 prosecutions have been initiated under the Act, including those taken by my Department arising from field inspections by Department Officers, authorised officers of the ISPCA and DSPCA and An Garda Síochána. Several prosecutions have been successfully completed and the remainder are at various stages in the court system.
Local Authorities/County Councils have responsibility under the Dog Breeding Establishment Act 2010 for the licensing and inspection of dog breeding premises and for initiating prosecutions as appropriate under that Act. In 2015, my predecessor requested that inspectors of my Department engage in joint inspections with the Local Authorities of the dog breeding establishments countrywide. Arising from these joint inspections, a number of establishments were requested to engage in structural improvements of their premises and, following the serving of a closure notice under the Dog Breeding Establishment Act, one establishment was shut down by Carlow County Council in early 2015.
805. Deputy Michael D'Arcy asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if the superlevy repayments for a person (details supplied) could be deferred for 2016, in light of the current low milk prices to allow the person a period of recovery. [13207/16]
View answerThe rules governing the EU milk quota regime, including the superlevy system for production above quota, were set at EU level and it is not within the gift of individual Member States to amend the rules. However at the request of Ireland and some other member states the EU Commission introduced a provision last year permitting payment of the levy in three annual instalments, without interest, on the understanding that the full amount of the levy was paid to the Commission by the Member State in 2015. The Scheme required applicants to pay at least one third of their levy by October 2015 with the balance to be paid in 2016 and 2017. Ireland was one of the few Member States to implement this scheme and make it available to its farmers. The scheme design was agreed in advance with the co-ops and farm organisations here. The person named by the Deputy is an applicant under this Scheme.
As part of the discussions in the run-up to the March Council of Agriculture Ministers, Ireland proposed a further deferral of the payment to 2017 and 2018, to ease the financial burden on liable farmers in 2016. I also raised the matter with Commissioner Phil Hogan, in our recent bilateral meeting, as well as at the recent Council of Ministers meeting and encouraged him to reflect again on whether a legal basis could be found to facilitate a further deferral in superlevy repayments for farmers. However the European Commission advised that the legal basis for the Regulations underpinning the scheme are no longer in existence and therefore further amendments were not possible. While Ireland has again raised the matter with the Commission, we understand that the view of its legal services remains that there is no legal basis for any adjustment to the timelines provided for in the relevant regulations.
806. Deputy Martin Kenny asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the percentage of County Leitrim under forestry. [13212/16]
View answerAccording to the latest figures available in the National Forest Inventory (2012) the proportion of forest cover in Co Leitrim is 16.7% (26,500 ha).
807. Deputy Martin Kenny asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the target for forestry planting in County Leitrim; and if his Department has a county by county or regional target for afforestation. [13213/16]
View answerThere are no county by county or regional targets for forestry planting in Ireland. I can confirm that there were 36 sites planted in Co Leitrim in 2014 totalling 271.91 hectares while nationally there was 6,156 hectares planted in the same year.
808. Deputy Pat Breen asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine when a payment will issue to a person (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13231/16]
View answerAn application under the 2015 Basic Payment Scheme (BPS)/Areas of Natural Constraints (ANC) Scheme was received from the person named on 29 April 2015. Advance and balancing payments in respect of the BPS issued in October and December 2015.
Under the 2015 ANC Scheme, eligible applicants are required to have met a minimum stocking density of 0.15 livestock units for a retention period of seven consecutive months and to maintain an annual average of 0.15 livestock units calculated over the twelve months of the scheme year. Following verifications checks, it was established that the holding of the person named had not met this requirement and therefore no payment is due.
809. Deputy Michael Healy-Rae asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the status of a payment to a person (details supplied) under the green low-carbon agri-environment scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13236/16]
View answerAn application for Tranche 2 of the GLAS Scheme for the person named was received on the dedicated GLAS online system on the 3 December 2015. The application was not approved into the GLAS scheme and accordingly no payment is due under the scheme. The unprecedented level of applications to the Scheme has meant that for GLAS 2, priority is being given to what are called Tier 1 and Tier 2 candidates, i.e. those who either manage key environmental assets like endangered birds, protected habitats or high-quality water courses, or who have committed to undertake particularly valuable environmental actions like growing feed-crops for wild birds, adopting low-impact tillage techniques or using low-emission slurry spreading methods.
Farmers had been urged to present the highest standard environmental plans under GLAS 2, and to adopt actions that would promote them from Tier 3 to a higher tier, thereby significantly increasing the chance of selection. Over 80% of applicants in this second tranche of GLAS opted to do so, and with the funding available were approved.
As the application by the person named was ranked as a Tier 3 application it was not selected into the scheme. A third tranche of GLAS (GLAS 3) will open later this year and the person named and any applicant who was unsuccessful in the second tranche will have the opportunity now to re-examine their proposed farm-plan, in consultation with their advisor, and see how it might be improved to increase their chance of selection under GLAS 3 and to submit a new application for GLAS 3 when the scheme is opened.
810. Deputy Michael Healy-Rae asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the status of a farm payment to a person (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13238/16]
View answerThe person named commenced their AEOS contract on 1 November 2011. Payment issued in respect of the 2010-2014 scheme years.
Under the EU Regulations governing the Scheme and other area-based payment schemes, a comprehensive administrative check, including cross-checks with the Land Parcel Identification System must take place. As all AEOS 1 participants will be receiving their final payments under the scheme, re-checks on payments made for all scheme years must be completed before final payment can be processed. These checks have been completed in this case and payment in respect of the 2015 Scheme year issued in two parts: 85% on 26 May 2016 and the remaining 15% on 30 May 2016.
811. Deputy Michael Healy-Rae asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the status of a farm payment for a person (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13248/16]
View answerAn application under Tranche 1 of GLAS was received in my Department on the 21 May 2015 and the person named was approved into the GLAS 1 with effect from 1 October 2015. There are a number of applications, including that of the person named, remaining which have not passed all of the Department’s pre-payment validation checks for the 2015 part-year payment. The Department is continuing to investigate these issues including the correction of any IT or data issues with a view to all these remaining cases meeting the payment validation checks so that they will be paid the full amount of their 2015 part-year payment at the same time the 2015 GLAS balancing payment is due to issue.
