Vol. 568 No. 6
178 Mr. Crowe asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food the exact official definition used by his Department of the terms disadvantage, disadvantaged area and disadvantaged community; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17016/03]
The terms disadvantage and disadvantaged community are not used in the context of schemes and means operated by my Department. The term disadvantaged areas is used in my Department to describe the rural areas of the country which exhibit permanent natural handicaps that prevent farmers from earning a reasonable income from the land, and/or are in danger of depopulation. Some 75% of the land area of the state is designated as disadvantaged. Within this designation, there are two categories – less severely handicapped which accounts for 16% of land area, and more severely handicapped which accounts for 59% of land area. The general conditions for designating areas as disadvantaged are laid down in Council Directive EEC/75/268. The specific criteria which apply in Ireland are contained in Council Directive EEC/85/350. Within Council Directive EEC/75/268, member states are authorised to pay compensatory allowances to farmers in areas designated as disadvantaged, and are further permitted to vary the amount of payments depending on the degree of the handicap. The specific criteria limits for designation of areas as disadvantaged are as follows:
Presence of Infertile Land:(1) less than 7.8% of the area is ploughed
(2) stocking rate is less than one adult bovine livestock unit per forage hectare
Farm Income:
(3) the family farm income per annual work unit does not exceed 80% of national average
Population – Low Density and High Dependency on Agriculture:
