Vol. 566 No. 1
217 Mr. Timmins asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food the number of farmers who claimed premia or farm subsidies in 2002; the number of farmers who receive no premia or area aid payments; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12204/03]
It is assumed that in the first part of the question the Deputy is referring to the number of farmers who claimed payments under the EU arable aid and livestock premium schemes and the area based compensatory allowance scheme in disadvantaged areas. Detailed statistics are not readily available as farmers will normally be in receipt of one or more payments under the various schemes.
The position is that, with some minor exceptions, in order to be considered for payment under any of these schemes a farmer must submit an annual area aid declaration to my Department. In 2002, my Department received a total of 126,560 area aid declarations and this is a good indication of the total number of farmers that received these payments in 2002. My Department does not have information in relation to those farmers who, for one reason or another, do not apply for payment under the various schemes.
