Vol. 561 No. 4
242 Mr. N. O'Keeffe asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food if he will consider waiving the overpayment which has arisen on the scheme of early retirement from farming in respect of a person (details supplied) in County Cork. [4694/03]
The 1994 scheme of early retirement from farming and the current scheme introduced in November 2000 are both governed by EU Council regulations. It is a requirement of these regulations that the early retirement pension may be paid only as a supplement to any national retirement pension payable. This means that any national retirement pension payable to a participant in the scheme, or to his or her spouse or partner in a joint management application, must be deducted from the early retirement pension.
The overpayment for the person named, amounting to €1,465.89, arose because he was getting the full amount of an early retirement pension and was also receiving the national non-contributory old age pension at the same time. My Department is obliged to recover all such overpayments under the scheme. However, my officials will consider sympathetically any proposals the person named may wish to make to repay the full amount over a period of time.
