Vol. 545 No. 3
91 Mr. Durkan asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Rural Development the degree to which various payments such as area aid, beef premia, headage or other payments are up to date; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30370/01]
Since 1 January 2001 almost £802 million has been paid to farmers under the various compensatory allowances, livestock premium and arable aid schemes of which some £480m is in respect of the 2001 schemes. This compares very favourably with payments in previous years and is in line with targets set out in the protocol on direct payments to farmers agreed with the farming organisations.
The payment targets set out in the protocol are very specific and my Department has a good record in relation to their achievement and indeed has surpassed them on a number of occasions. Full payments under the 2001 disadvantaged areas compensatory allowance scheme commenced as agreed on 21 September and over £162.5 million has been paid to date. With regard to the 2001 cattle premium schemes, payments of 80% advances commenced on 26 October, the day the EU Regulation allowing advances of 80% to be paid instead of the usual 60% was published. Some £144.5 million issued to beef farmers on 26 October and to date a total of £183.7 million has been paid to them. Full payments under the 2001 arable aid scheme commenced on 16 November the date specified in the protocol and the earliest permitted by EU regulations. In excess of £94 million was paid to approximately 95% of applicants on that day.
The only livestock payments that were not paid on target this year were the first advances under the 2001 ewe premium scheme. These were delayed because extra checks were necessary following the discovery of irregularities in ewe premium applications in the Cooley area of County Louth at the time of the foot and mouth crisis.
