Consideration of applications
5.—(1) As soon as reasonably practicable after the date specified as the closing date for applications in a notice published under Article 4(1) the Department shall—
(a)reject any application which is contrary to Article 7 of Council Regulation 2792/99;
(b)establish a bid price per VCU, by dividing the bid by respective VCUs;
(c)divide the vessels in respect of which an application has been made into two classes, namely—
(i)vessels having an allocation for Irish Sea Cod, whiting, haddock and hake in excess of 300 FQAs; and
(ii)any vessel having an allocation for such fish of 300 FQAs or less.
(d)set a strike price for each class of vessel established under sub-paragraph (c);
(e)announce strike price for each such class of vessel after all bids have been received; and
(f)in relation to each such class approve each application for grant aid made under Article 3 by starting with the lowest bid price and proceeding in ascending order to highest or until the amount of money allocated to the Scheme has been exhausted.
(2) For the purposes of paragraph (1)—
“Irish Sea Cod” means cod (Gadus morhua) in the sea area ICES Statistical Division VIIa;
“whiting” means whiting (Melangus merlangus) in the sea area ICES Statistical Division VIIa;
“haddock” means haddock (Melanogrammus aeglefinus) in the sea area ICES Statistical Sub-Area VII; and
“hake” means hake (Merluccuis merluccius) in the sea areas ICES Statistical Division VB and ICES Statistical Sub-Areas VI, VII, XII and XIV.
(3) In relation to each class of vessel established under paragraph (1)(c) the strike price shall be set at the level of the highest bid price per VCU which relates to a vessel of that class and is determined by the Department to be reasonable.
(4) The Department may reject any application if it considers the amount of the bid in the application to be unreasonable, having regard to the amount of money allocated to this Scheme.
(5) The Department shall reject any application if it has reasonable grounds for suspecting that there has been any fixing or adjustment of the amount of a bid by, under or in accordance with any agreement (whether legally binding or not) or arrangement with another person.