Vol. 523 No. 5
183 Mr. U. Burke asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Rural Development the reason a person (details supplied) in County Galway, who has always been involved in and made a living from farming, was disallowed a farm retirement pension; if he will review his Department's decision in this regard. [21496/00]
It is a condition of the scheme of early retirement from farming that in order to be eligible, an applicant must have practised farming as a main occupation in the ten years prior to his or her retirement.
In the case of the person named, the herd number was transferred to her son in 1995 and all the area aid applications since 1993 were made in his name. Accordingly, she could not be deemed to have practised farming as a main occupation in the ten years prior to her retirement. My Department wrote to the applicant on 12 September 2000, informing her that her application had been rejected and advising that if she believed that the facts on which the decision was based were incorrect, she could appeal the decision. To date, the Department has not received an appeal.
