Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 25 Mar 2003

Vol. 563 No. 4

Written Answers - Grant Payments.

John Deasy

Question:

208 Mr. Deasy asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food the reason the balance of headage payments has not been made in line with the Government's customer service action plan; if payment will be issued immediately; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8191/03]

Minister for Agriculture and Food (Mr. Walsh)

Under new arrangements, introduced by the EU with effect from 1 January 2002, all bovine premia scheme applications must be processed at producer level rather than application level. This means that before balancing payment can be made all applications under the special beef premium scheme, the suckler cow premium scheme and the slaughter premium scheme must be examined together to establish, in the case of the suckler cow premium and the special beef premium, if stocking density levels have been complied with. If there is non-compliance under any of the three schemes, any resulting penalty calculation must take into account the total number of eligible animals under each of the schemes. These new arrangements will be reflected in the next customer service action plan.

While the producer approach will cause a slight delay in balancing payments, the overall effect will be that any penalties imposed will be more proportional than heretofore. This arises because the number of non-compliant animals is divided by all the eligible animals under the three schemes, as distinct from the number of eligible animals for the individual scheme as was the case until now. The new arrangements have also resulted in a significant reduction in the number of on-farm inspections under the bovine schemes.

An additional factor in the 2002 schemes is that the national quota for the special beef premium scheme has been exceeded with an increase in the number of animals submitted for the premium in late December 2002. It will not be possible to definitively determine the exact percentage overshoot until such time as all December 2002 applications have been fully processed. Balancing payments are expected to commence in April 2003.