Noel Dempsey
Question:201 Mr. Dempsey asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Forestry the basis on which sheep quotas were originally decided for individual farmers. [5951/95]
Written Answers. - Sheep Quota Eligibility.
Under CAP reform, quotas were introduced into the sheepmeat sector. Council Regulation 2069/92 set individual producer limits based on the total ewe premiums granted in either the 1989, 1990 or 1991 marketing year to each producer. Ireland selected 1991 as the reference year.
The regulation provided that in order to automatically qualify for the ewe premium quota a flockowner had to (a) have been paid the premium in 1991 (b) have applied for a quota based on the number of ewes on which they were paid the premium in 1991 less a deduction for a national reserve — which had to be established by deduction from existing premium rights.
This reserve was necessary to allow access for both new producers and existing producers whose reference flocks were not in line with the normal pattern of the flock size.
The national reserve was established by a percentage deduction on a sliding scale from all flocks over 100 eligible ewes.