Tom Hayes
Question:20 Mr. Hayes asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food when the balance of 20% of livestock premia payments will be paid; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9096/03]
Written Answers - Grant Payments.
Tom Hayes
Question:44 Mr. Hayes asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food if all livestock payments for 2002 have been paid; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9097/03]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 20 and 44 together.
The position is that since 1 January 2002 some €1,485 billion has been paid to farmers under the various premia and compensatory allowance schemes of which €1,014 billion relates to payments under the 2002 schemes. This represents an increase of almost €140 million on the amount paid to the same date last year. Advance payments for the 2002 premia schemes were at an 80% level. Balancing payments are expected to commence later this month.
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 a 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 calculation must take into account the total number of eligible animals under each of the schemes.
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 are 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 up to 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 impacting on the processing of the 2002 schemes and the timing of balancing payments 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.