Dan Neville
Question:208 Mr. Neville asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Rural Development the reason farm retirement payments were discontinued to a person (details supplied) in County Limerick. [11818/02]
Written Answers. - Farm Retirement Scheme.
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.
My Department wrote to the person named on 17 October 2001 requesting evidence of her husband's entitlement to either a contributory or a non-contributory old age pension. She was also advised in this letter that if this information was not forthcoming within three months that her pension would be suspended. The information requested was not received and my Department had no alternative but to suspend her pension from March 2002. When she supplies the information required, my Department will review the position.