Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Wednesday, 6 Oct 1999

Vol. 508 No. 4

Written Answers. - Installation Aid Scheme.

Ivan Yates

Ceist:

150 Mr. Yates asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Rural Development if additional staff resources will be made available or some other measure employed to clear the backlog of the processing of applications under the agricultural installation aid scheme (details supplied) in County Wexford. [19109/99]

Minister for Agriculture, Food and Rural Development (Mr. Walsh)

The national scheme of installation aid – SIA – for young farmers was introduced in January 1999. Since then a total of 85 applications have been received for County Wexford. A total of 19 have been paid to date.

Unfortunately, the rural development and environment inspector who processes SIA as well as doing compliance checks on the early retirement and rural environment protection schemes for County Wexford was out of work due to illness and returned to duty recently. My Department is actively looking at ways of bringing the processing of applications up to date.