Vol. 454 No. 6
182 Mr. B. O'Keeffe asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Forestry the total amount of headage payments made under the beef cow scheme in 1994; the amount of overpayments in 1989; and the likelihood of the recovery of this money. [11191/95]
Total headage payments under the 1994 beef cow scheme in less severely handicapped areas amounted to £18,937,264.
Overpayments in 1989 amounted to £1,750 million. It had not been possible, because of industrial action by the Civil and Public Service Union in the latter half of 1989, to fully process some 22,000 applications for payment under the disadvantaged areas schemes and advance payments were made, on the basis of payments in the previous year. Steps were taken to prevent overpayments arising but these proved inadequate because of the industrial action.
