Vol. 522 No. 4
103 Mr. Penrose asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Rural Development if he will have an application by a person (details supplied) in County Westmeath for participation in the early retirement scheme finalised as this is now seven months with his Department; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18976/00]
This application was lodged in the local farm development service office in October 1999. The final date for applications for the existing early retirement scheme was 31 December 1999, and as a result a very large number of applications were received in the closing months of last year, which led to unavoidable delays in processing though priority has been given to this work. It has not yet been possible to finalise the processing of this application to completion as the accompanying documentation was incomplete. The applicant's solicitor was informed by letter on 31 May 2000 that the application was invalid as one of the leases was not accompanied by section 12 consent. When this is supplied, processing will be resumed. Under the terms and conditions of the scheme of early retirement from farming, payment of the pension can be made only from the date of receipt of a valid application. A valid application is an application accompanied by all the necessary documents indicating that all the conditions for payment have been met as approved by an authorised officer of the Minister.
