Michael Ring
Question:208 Mr. Ring asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food the plans, if any, he has to remove the rulings in the REP scheme, introduced by the Government rather than as an EU Directive, which state that commonage must have been on an area aid application in 1997 to qualify for payment and a farmer who owned sheep in 1997 but had no quota until 1998 cannot join the scheme; and if he will make a detailed statement on this issue in view of the large number of farmers it disqualifies from REP scheme eligibility. [7857/99]