Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 7 July 2016
281. Deputy Martin Kenny asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of transfer of entitlement cases held up, not completed due to suspension; the reason there is a suspension; if it is the case that this suspension is in place since May 2016; and when the suspension will be lifted (details supplied). [20222/16]
View answerUnder EU Regulations governing the Basic Payment Scheme Member States were obliged to definitively establish Entitlements for all farmers prior to 31 May 2016. In this regard the definitive establishment of Entitlements was completed for 127,000 farmers in Ireland on 31st May 2016. In order to definitively establish Entitlements for a farmer all their Transfer of Entitlement applications must be processed to completion. In a small number of cases, 106 in total, it was not possible to complete a Transfer of Entitlements application by the May deadline, mainly due to outstanding documentary evidence pertaining to the Transfer.
Following the definitive establishment of Entitlements clarification was required from the EU Commission regarding the methodology for processing remaining Entitlement related applications including Transfer cases. This clarification has now been received and arrangements are being made to process the remaining Transfer applications as soon as possible.
