Vol. 512 No. 8
33 Mr. Neville asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Rural Development when the farm retirement pension will be paid at the rate which applied prior to 1 January 1999; and when the arrears of pension arising from this will be paid. [27459/99]
Pensions paid under the scheme of early retirement from farming, along with certain other payments, were reduced by approximately 5.055% when the euro was introduced.
Formal approval to pay compensation for this reduction to participants in the scheme was received from the European Commission on 8 December. My Department is now making arrangements for payment to be made by the end of January 2000 to current scheme participants. Other cases which will have to be calculated individually will be paid as soon as possible after that date.
