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Rates of payment under agreement

5.—(1) The Minister may make payments under an agreement in consideration of the requirements included pursuant to article 4(1), up to the maximum rate per annum set out in Part I of Schedule 9 for each hectare of grassland to which the agreement relates.

(2) Where an agreement contains the additional provisions specified in one or more of—

(a)Schedule 2,

(b)Schedule 3,

(c)Schedule 4,

(d)Schedule 5, and

(e)the options contained in Schedule 6,

the Minister may make payments in consideration of those provisions, up to the maximum rate per annum for each hectare of land which under the agreement is subject to those provisions, as set out opposite the reference to that Schedule, or, as the case may be, option, in Part II of Schedule 9.

(3) An agreement may include the requirements as to public access specified in Schedule 7 and, where it does so, the Minister may make payments in consideration of those requirements, up to the maximum rate per annum set out in Part III of Schedule 9 for each hectare of access route.

(4) Where an agreement includes a conservation plan, the Minister may make payments in consideration of the operations included in the plan, up to the maximum sum set out in Part IV of Schedule 9.

(5) For the purposes of paragraph (4) of this article, a conservation plan means a plan which the farmer undertakes or has undertaken as part of an agreement to implement within a period of two years, for the carrying out of one or more of the operations specified in Schedule 8.

(6) In this article and Schedule 9 any reference to a payment rate in relation to any unit of measurement includes a proportionate rate for a proportionate part of that unit.