Vol. 494 No. 4
216 Mr. Penrose asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food the time required to process applications for the farm retirement scheme; the time lag between the date of application and date of assessment; the number which remain to be processed; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18706/98]
A recent survey of applications approved under the scheme of early retirement from farming disclosed that 34 per cent of applications are approved within one month of receipt of a valid application, 66 per cent are approved within three months and 90 per cent are approved within seven months. There are no figures available on the time lag between the date of application and the date of assessment. However, the above statistics take this into account as part of the overall processing time. The rate of approval of applications depends on the quality of the applications and the volume in any particular county. I would point out, however, that in no case does the processing time result in a financial loss to a retiring farmer. The operational procedures for the scheme specifically ensure that the date of receipt in the Department of a valid application determines the date from which payment is made.
There are currently 385 applications being processed for entry into the scheme.
