Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 18 Dec 1997

Vol. 485 No. 4

Written Answers. - Grant Payments.

Ruairí Quinn

Question:

45 Mr. Quinn asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food the rate of interest, if any, which will be paid to farmers on late payments to them under the various EU refunded aid and nationally funded support programmes; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23326/97]

Minister for Agriculture and Food (Mr. Walsh)

The position is that under EU regulations governing the bovine premium schemes payments cannot commence until 1 November each year and even then only a 60 per cent advance payment can be made. The regulations provide that balancing payments must be made by 30 June of the year following the year of application. There is a tolerance representing 4 per cent of the total amount paid by 30 June which can be used to make payments outside the 30 June deadline in duly justified exceptional circumstances. Generally, payments made after 30 June of the year following the year of application and which do not come within the 4 per cent tolerance are not funded by the EU and any such payments must be funded totally by the Exchequer.

The regulations do not provide for the payment of interest in respect of payments made outside the deadline of 30 June of the year following the year of application.

In so far as the disadvantaged areas' headage scheme payments are concerned these are 65 per cent co-financed by the EU but the regulations do not stipulate a payment deadline. Every effort is made to ensure that full payment is made in eligible cases in the year of application.

Regardless of the EU deadlines for payment my Department has set out certain target dates for making these payments in the Charter of Rights for Farmers. Different payment target dates apply to the various schemes. Under the disadvantaged areas' headage schemes the target is to make full payment in the year of application and to make payments in all eligible cases by 31 October. Under the suckler cow premium scheme the target is to commence advance payments on 1 November and, where the six months' retention period is completed by 30 November, to make all eligible advance payments by 31 December. Under the special beef premium scheme the target is to commence advance payments on 1 November and, where the two month retention period is completed by 1 November, to make all eligible advance payments by 31 December. Under the arable aid scheme the target is to commence payments on 16 October and to have all eligible applications paid by 31 October.

Apart from the disadvantaged areas' schemes, where initially there were some unavoidable delays linked to difficulties associated with area aid applications, my Department is on target to meet the payment deadlines set down in the Charter of Rights for Farmers. Indeed, under the EU arable aid scheme, the target has been significantly surpassed. In so far as the disadvantaged areas' schemes are concerned some 40 per cent of eligible applicants were paid by 31 October. To date 92 per cent of sheep headage applicants have been paid and over 88 per cent of cattle headage applicants have been paid. Payments are continuing to be made under all of the schemes and by 31 December all eligible applicants should have received payment. Those cases not paid by that date will be a minority of problem cases which may take some time to resolve with the farmers concerned. In fact the percentage of applicants paid at this stage is greater than the percentage paid at 31 December 1996 under the 1996 schemes.

To date this year my Department has made 1.409 million payments valued at almost £733 million under the various EU livestock and arable aid schemes. Some 903,136 of these payments valued at £48 million represent payments under the 1997 schemes including payments made under the various EU BSE and agrimonetary compensation schemes. At present payments valued at £15 million are issuing to farmers under a nationally funded agrimonetary compensation package.