Vol. 495 No. 7
280 Mr. Connaughton asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food the reason a decision on an application for the farm retirement pension scheme for a person (details supplied) in County Galway has not been made; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21415/98]
The application in this case was for a continuation of the early retirement pension to a spouse of a deceased participant in the scheme. The way in which the scheme operates is that entitlement of a spouse or other relative to a continuation of the pension for the balance of the period for which the pension would be otherwise payable, is subject to them being dependent on the pension at the time of death of the participant. A spouse is deemed to qualify as a dependant for the continuation of the early retirement pension when his-her current income at the time of death of the spouse, together with the early retirement pension, would be lower than the sum of the maximum of the early retirement pension plus the average industrial wage as determined by the Central Statistics Office. In this case, as the situation of the spouse does not meet the guidelines, it is not possible to continue the payment of the deceased participant's pension to his spouse.
