Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Thursday, 8 Mar 2001

Vol. 532 No. 3

Written Answers. - Grant Payments.

Paul Connaughton

Ceist:

100 Mr. Connaughton asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Rural Development the reason headage and suckler cow grants payments have not been paid for 2000 to a person (details supplied) in County Galway; if his attention has been drawn to the fact that the area aid application contained land which he genuinely believed was being rented to him but which was also rented to another farmer; and if his attention has further been drawn to the fact that the person (details supplied) had extra land that he had not included in the area aid in the first instance; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7246/01]

Minister for Agriculture, Food and Rural Development (Mr. Walsh):

The person named submitted a 2000 area aid application that included a parcel of land in respect of which a dual claim was determined. My Department contacted the person named to clarify the matter on 6 October 2000 and a reminder was sent on 15 November 2000. The person named replied on 14 December 2000, stating that he had been renting the land in question for a number of years. It has now been confirmed by the owner that the disputed land was in fact rented to another farmer in 2000. The person named now accepts this position, which gives rise to an overclaim on his area aid application.

In the circumstances my Department applied the appropriate penalty under Article 9 of EU Regulation 3887/92. The person named claimed a total of 9.69 hectares on his 2000 area aid appli cation. Following processing of his application an area of 6.00 hectares was determined. This represents a difference of 3.69 hectares or 61.50% between the area claimed and that determined.

Under Article 9 of EU Regulation 3887/92, when the difference is over 20%, a 100% penalty must be applied. Therefore, in this case as the overclaim is greater than 20%, no area aid related payments can issue in respect of 2000.

Under EU regulations it is not possible to add extra land on to the 2000 area aid application after 31 May 2000.