Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 30 June 2022
320. Deputy Michael Ring asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the reason such a harsh penalty was applied to persons (details supplied) in County Mayo in view of their circumstances. [35105/22]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe objective of the Beef Environmental Efficiency Programme – Suckler (BEEP - S) is to further increase economic and environmental efficiency in the suckler herd through better quality data on herd performance, supporting decision making on farm and support of best practice in welfare management.
In addition to the mandatory weighing requirement, participants had the choice of a number of additional animal welfare measures. One of these involves the introduction of meal feeding for a period of four weeks pre-weaning and two weeks post-weaning, to reduce the stress on calves at weaning time and record the action. This action when selected must be carried out on all the calves that had their weights submitted under the scheme and is paid at a rate of €30 per calf. For the 2021 scheme, the persons named selected this option.
As part of the scheme’s administrative control checks a number of participants who selected the meal feeding option, including the persons named, were requested to submit meal purchase receipts (or evidence of use of own farm produced cereals) for the number of calves that were weighed as part of the scheme. Records subsequently submitted showed that the required meal feeding had only been carried out on 11 of the 13 calves submitted for payment under the scheme. Two calves had been sold prior to the action being completed.
The scheme Terms and Conditions state:
"Failure to produce or forward the records when requested will be a breach of the programme obligations and will result in no payments for the relevant year and a 50% administrative penalty based on the overall amount which would have been payable in the year for that action will be imposed."
As the required records for the 13 calves put forward for payment were not submitted, the meal feeding option was not eligible for a payment of €390 and an additional penalty of €195 was deducted from payments made under the scheme.
This decision was notified to the persons named by letter on 2nd March 2022. This letter also informed them of their right to have the matter reviewed should the so wish. To-date no such review has been requested.
