Ivan Yates
Question:155 Mr. Yates asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Forestry the reason a person (details supplied) in County Wexford was refused an additional ewe premium quota; and if it will be reconsidered on an appeal basis.
Written Answers. - Ewe Quota.
The person named applied for additional ewe premium quota from the national reserve but he did not indicate any particular category. My Department has examined the history of his ewe premium applications but I regret that he is not entitled to ewe premium reserve quota under any of the categories specified in the terms and conditions.
Ivan Yates
Question:156 Mr. Yates asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Forestry the number of applicants that applied for ewe premium quota; the amount of quota that has been allocated to date; the total that exists in the national reserve; the number of successful applicants; and if he will make a statement on the administration of this quota so far, in so far as it refers to the criteria being chosen for those who are successful.
A total of 10,622 applications for reserve quota were received from flockowners. The total quota available for distribution from the reserve amounted to approximately 200,000 premium rights.
The terms and conditions provided that quota would be allocated to the following categories of producers in descending order of priority.
Category 1
(a) Flockowners whose application for the ewe premium in 1991, due to exceptional circumstances, did not correspond to the true situation on their holdings in previous years; (b) flockowners who have regularly submitted an application for the ewe premium, including in 1992, but who have not done so in 1991; (c) flockowners who were paid the ewe premium in 1991 but did not apply in 1992 due to exceptional circumstances; and (d) flockowners who submitted an application for the ewe premium for the first time in 1992 or subsequent years and who meet the following conditions: are under 35 years of age; their total household income is less than £14,822 per annum; at least 50 per cent of their total income is derived from farming and have the following qualifications; (i) if born after 1 January 1968, must have (a) obtained the Teagasc certificate in farming or a higher qualification or (b) have three years practical experience in farming and have satisfactorily completed a course of training in farming of a minimum duration of 150 hours, or (ii) if born before 1 January 1968, meet the requirements outlined in (i) or have five years practical experience in farming.
Category 2
Flockowners who can demonstrate that the operation of the quota limits will jeopardise the viability of their holdings and who have embarked on (i) a farm improvement plan involving sheep production drawn up by 1 January 1993 or (ii) a finance restructuring plan related to sheep production drawn up in conjunction with Teagasc by 1 January 1993.
Category 3
Flockowners who have acquired land formerly used for sheep production by other producers.
In addition, the application form provided for another category, category 4, to enable flockowners who applied for the ewe premium for the first time in 1992 to apply for premium rights which would have been allocated to flockowners who applied for the premium in 1991 but who, having ceased sheep farming, did not apply for the ewe premium in 1992 and whose holding was not taken over by another producer.
Work on processing the applications began in December 1993 and is continuing. To date 123,060 premium rights have been allocated to 3,023 successful applicants. Over 2,500 applicants had to be written to seeking further information which they failed to supply with the original application and this has led to long delays in finalising quota allocation. In addition, quite a number of obviously incorrect applications were received. For example 2,836 producers applied for an allocation under category 1 (a) when clearly they had more sheep in 1991 than in previous years.
The number of unsuccessful applicants to date is 5,508. Work on processing the remaining 2,091 cases which are the subject of queries is continuing as replies to the queries are received.