Vol. 433 No. 6
96 Mr. Yates asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Forestry if a person (details supplied) in County Wexford will be allocated a suckler cow quota from the National Reserve in view of the hardship he suffered out of the losses selling his land and milk quota in 1991 and the particular difficulties he experienced in getting decisions from the Dairying Division of his Department.
The relevant EC Regulations provide for suckler cow quotas to be based on the number of cows on which a producer was paid premium under the 1992 suckler cow premium scheme. The person named is not entitled to a suckler cow quota because he did not apply for premium under the 1992 scheme.
EC regulations provide for the establishment of a national reserve equal to between 1 per cent and 3 per cent of the sum of the individual quotas allocated to producers and a special reserve equal to 1 per cent of the total of the individual quotas allocated to producers in the disadvantaged areas. As the applications for the suckler cow premium scheme were accepted to the end of 1992 and as the retention period for the scheme is six months, it will not be possible for some time yet to indicate the total number of suckler cows which received the premium in 1992 and, therefore, to indicate the size of the reserves. When these reserves are established I will be making a decision on the priority categories for the allocation of these reserves. The person named may then submit a formal application for reserve quota to my Department at Michael Davitt House, Castlebar. He will, of course, be required to provide documentary evidence to support his claim for reserve quota.
I do not accept that the person named has had particular difficulties in getting decisions from my Department.
