5.—(1) An application for beef special premium shall be made in such form as the Department may reasonably require.
(2) An application made for beef special premium shall not be accepted by the Department unless notification of the birth on the applicant’s holding or, as the case may be, arrival on the applicant’s holding of the bovine animals to which the application relates has been made in accordance with—
(a)the second indent of Article 7(1) of Council Regulation 820/97 and the Cattle Identification (Notification of Births, Deaths and Movements) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1999(1); or
(b)the second indent of Article 7(1) of Regulation 1760/2000 and the Cattle Identification (Notification of Births, Deaths and Movements) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1999.
(3) In respect of any application made to the Department for beef special premium—
(a)for the purposes of the first indent of Article 4(5) of Council Regulation 1254/1999, the headage limit of 90 bovine animals per holding and per age bracket shall not apply to that application; and
(b)for the purposes of the second indent of that Article, where the regional ceiling has been exceeded, a proportionate reduction in the number of bovine animals entitled to benefit from that premium shall not be applied to that application if it is made by a small producer,
and for the purposes of this paragraph “small producer” means an applicant who has, for the scheme year in question, made an application in respect of no more than 30 bovine animals, which animals shall not include bovine animals—
(i)covered by an application which has subsequently been withdrawn by the applicant; or
(ii)withdrawn from an application as a result of errors notified by the applicant to the Department pursuant to Article 11(1a) of Commission Regulation 3887/92.
(4) An applicant shall not be entitled to make more than—
(a)six applications for first premium;
(b)ten applications for second premium; and
(c)six applications for bull premium,
during any one calendar year.