Vol. 517 No. 6
184 Dr. O'Hanlon asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Rural Development the position regarding the inclusion of the remainder of County Monaghan in the more severely handicapped area; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10820/00]
When the disadvantaged areas appeals panel were commencing their examination of areas, including County Monaghan, for reclassification in 1992 it was decided, following a meeting with farming organisations, that the panel would base their recommendations on data gathered in the 1989 survey.
It was agreed that if the income limit was raised from 40% to 60% and the working population limit was disregarded, then the data would allow selection of a significant number of additional areas. A further condition was that the land must be rated at four or lower on a quality scale of zero to nine, and also that selected areas must adjoin existing more severely handicapped areas.
Using these criteria, the appeals panel selected an additional 30% of Monaghan for reclassification as more severely handicapped, and this was approved by the EU Commission in November 1995, bringing the area of land designated more severely handicapped in Monaghan to 73% of total land in the county.
Following representations regarding areas not included, it was decided to carry out a complete re-check of the less severely handicapped areas in Monaghan, including those reclassified in 1995. This re-check highlighted a number of areas which the appeals panel had inadvertently omitted from their original recommendation. A supplementary proposal to the EU Commission was prepared and submitted in April 1997 to include these additional areas. This was finally approved by the STAR Committee in February 1999, bringing the area of land designated more severely handicapped in Monaghan to 85% .
Following a review in 1999 of the remaining less severely handicapped area in Monaghan, four further townlands were identified as satisfying the criteria. A proposal to have these reclassified as more severely handicapped is in preparation.
I am satisfied that, based on the data available, all areas of County Monaghan which could be shown to satisfy the criteria for more severely handicapped status have now been or are in the process of being reclassified.
