Rates of payment under the scheme of early retirement from farming were reduced with effect from 1 January 1999 as a result of the introduction of the euro. Participants who had joined the scheme before that date had their payments reduced as a result, and it is to those participants that compensation has been paid, with the approval of the EU Commission, in respect of their losses during 1999. As the person named joined the scheme after 1 January 1999 her payments were not reduced and I regret that, therefore, she was not eligible for compensation.