Vol. 503 No. 7
57 Mr. Ring asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food the number of 1998 area aid applications outstanding in County Mayo; the number of applications nationwide which still have problems; and when his Department will have all the applications for 1998 fully processed with all problems resolved. [10889/99]
Some 132,700 area aid applications were received in 1998. All of these applications have been processed by the area aid unit. Of these, some 1,300, i.e. 0.98 per cent, have outstanding problems which must be resolved before the processing can be completed. Some 323 of these outstanding applications are in County Mayo.
The area aid unit has written to these applicants, in many cases on a number of occasions, with a view to resolving outstanding issues. Those issues fall into the categories of: overclaims; dual claims; overlaps; commonage overclaims.
It is my intention that the processing of 1998 applications will be concluded by the end of May in order that all the area aid units resources can be concentrated on processing 1999 applications. I would, therefore, urge all farmers who have not yet responded to letters from the area aid unit to do so immediately.
