Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Wednesday, 20 Nov 1996

Vol. 471 No. 7

Written Answers. - Grant Payments.

John O'Leary

Ceist:

397 Mr. O'Leary asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Forestry the total number of farmers to whom cattle headage premia and sheep headage premia are payable in 1996; the total number of farmers who have been paid to date; and the total number of farmers who will be paid prior to 31 December 1996. [21679/96]

Minister for Agriculture, Food and Forestry (Mr. Yates)

Details in respect of the 1996 cattle headage-beef cow headage and sheep headage schemes are outlined on the attached table.

Before payment can issue to any applicant under headage and premium schemes, other than the ewe premium and slaughter premium schemes and applicants with under 15 livestock units, a valid area aid application must be submitted. As part of the integrated administration and control system, required by the EU, Ireland was committed to developing a new area aid related land parcel identification system (LPIS) in 1996.

Given the increased levels of checks and controls associated with the new system it was inevitable that some delay in making payments, when measured against the 1995 performance, would arise. Notwithstanding this, so far in 1996 some 914,000 payments totalling over £666 million have been made to farmers under the various headage and premia schemes including the BSE compensation package. The position with regard to the 1996 schemes is that payments commenced on target and some 486,000 payments valued at £408 million have been made under these schemes to date. This compares most favourably with the payment positions at similar times in 1994 and previous years which were as follows:

Scheme Year	No. of Payments	Amount Paid
		£m
1994	308,100	282.9
1993	95,000	117.1
1992	227,400	165.6

Payments under all schemes continue to be made and I am confident that all but the most intractable problem cases will be paid by mid-December.

Number of Applications under 1996 cattle headage/beef cow headage and sheep headage schemes.

Scheme	Number of applications received	Numbers paid to date
Cattle Headage/Beef Cow Headage	91,501	62,326
Sheep Headage	31,493	21,384

Not all applications received will attract payment. A certain percentage are ineligible each year due to lack of valid area aid applications, insufficient forage area, penalties arising, etc.

Michael Finucane

Ceist:

398 Mr. Finucane asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Forestry when a REP scheme payment will be made to a person (details supplied) in County Limerick. [21691/96]

Minister for Agriculture, Food and Forestry (Mr. Yates)

The person concerned has applied for his first year payment under the REP Scheme. His application will be processed shortly and, if in order, payment will issue as soon as possible thereafter.