Vol. 552 No. 1
146 Mr. Penrose asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Rural Development the reason the farm retirement pension of a person (details supplied) in County Westmeath continues to reduce; if the pension is now significantly lower than when this person first entered the scheme as a participant; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11203/02]
The person named entered the scheme of early retirement from farming in joint management with her husband. In keeping with the requirements of the EU Council regulation under which the scheme was introduced, any national retirement pension paid to either the participant or the other party in a joint management case must be offset against the pension paid under the early retirement scheme.
In this case, the husband of the person named qualified for an old age contributory pension from 1 May 1998 and this is being deducted from the early retirement pension. As the gross amount of early retirement pension is fixed, any increase in the rate of old age pension, such as that granted in the 2002 budget, results in a reduction in the amount of the early retirement pension.
