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Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 8 Dec 1998

Vol. 498 No. 1

Written Answers. - Grant Payments.

Ulick Burke

Question:

200 Mr. U. Burke asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food the reason farmers with separate farms and herd numbers are only entitled to a maximum of 90 ten and 22 month beef premia while Teagasc are entitled to claim 90 ten and 22 month premia on each farm. [26649/98]

The position is that since CAP reform arrangements were introduced in 1992, restrictions are in place in a number of EU funded schemes which limit the size of the claim or restrict eligibility to certain categories of farmer. These limits and restrictions arise from policy decisions within the framework of reform of the Common Agricultural Policy.

Article 2.2 of Commission Regulation 3887/92 provides that:

Member States shall take the measures necessary to avoid that the conversion of existing holdings or the creation of new holdings after 30 June 1992 to the patently improper avoidance of the provisions relating to individual limits on eligibility for premium or land setaside requirements, imposed under the schemes indicated in Article 1 of Regulation (EEC) No. 3887/92.

Effectively this requires that the Department must satisfy itself that where new holdings are created after 30 June 1992 they are legitimate entities managed separately from existing holdings and that holdings which existed prior to 30 June 1992 are not split into two or more holdings for the sole purpose of avoiding individual limits on eligibility for premiums. Applying this requirement to the Teagasc farms I am satisfied that there was no conversion of existing holdings or the creation of new holdings after 30 June 1992 which led to the improper avoidance of the provisions relating to individual limits on eligibility for premium.
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