A farmer who was thrown out of the Green Low-carbon Agri-environment Scheme (GLAS) by the Department was reinstated after he appealed his case to the Ombudsman last year.

In his annual report, Ombudsman Peter Tyndall outlined the case of Adam, a farmer who joined the five-year GLAS scheme in 2017.

One of the criteria for receiving payments under the scheme relates to the requirement to spread slurry.

Annual return

In the first year of the scheme, Adam spread slurry, but he did not submit the relevant annual return.

The Department sent him a number of reminders, but he did not respond. The Department then expelled him from the scheme.

Adam complained that he had receipts to show that he had undertaken the required work in 2017, 2018 and 2019.

He claimed his only error was not submitting his annual return on time.

It had incorrectly imposed a penalty on Adam for failing to stick to the scheme’s rules

The Ombudsman considered the various penalties under GLAS and found that in Adam’s case the Department had confused two penalties.

It had incorrectly imposed a penalty on Adam for failing to stick to the scheme’s rules.

Instead, it should have issued him with a late submission penalty (when a farmer who is over 25 days late in submitting his annual return, he is not paid for that action).

The Ombudsman said that Adam should not have been removed from the scheme and asked the Department to reconsider its decision.

Outcome

The Department allowed Adam back into GLAS. It also agreed to pay the farmer for most of the work he completed between 2017 and 2019. This amounted to approximately €10,500.

While Adam had spread slurry in 2017, 2018 and 2019, the Department penalised him for being late in submitting his returns for those years and deducted €240 from his payment.