Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 11 June 2014
117. Deputy Patrick O'Donovan asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine when a response to representations will issue in respect of a person (details supplied) in County Limerick; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24892/14]
View answerThe enquiry in question from the person named asked as to ‘the reasons specialist heifer feeders were excluded from the beef premium payments system; if he has considered a form of redress system for these farmers as a consequence of them only receiving a relatively small single farm payment or none at all’. As indicated in the previous reply to the Deputy, the EU Regulations governing the Special Beef Premium Scheme defined the animals eligible under the Scheme i.e. bulls and bullocks. Generally, the Single Payment Scheme is applicable to farmers who actively farmed during all or any of the three reference years 2000, 2001 and 2002, who were paid Livestock Premia and/or Arable Aid payments in one or more of those years and by whom Single Payment entitlements were, therefore, established. Other farmers, including new entrants to farming since the reference period, are also eligible for the Single Payment Scheme where they have received entitlements from the National Reserve, or by way of a transfer i.e. purchase or lease.
However, following receipt of the Deputy’s subsequent further enquiries regarding this matter on behalf of the person named, I arranged that a further review of these older schemes be conducted, with a view to establishing the precise position of the person named insofar as the calculation of entitlements under the Single Payment Scheme is concerned. As this review will shortly be completed, a comprehensive reply will then issue to the Deputy at that stage.
