Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Tuesday, 6 Nov 2001

Vol. 543 No. 2

Written Answers. - Disadvantaged Areas Scheme.

Michael Ring

Ceist:

247 Mr. Ring asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Rural Development the number of farmers who have applied for the new area based disadvantaged area scheme on a county by county breakdown; the amount of aid paid to each farmer; and the amount of the 90% compensation payable in each county to date. [26232/01]

Michael Ring

Ceist:

248 Mr. Ring asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Rural Development the additional cost of the recently announced proposal to pay higher area based payments in mountain areas; and if it can be done within the allocation of £180 million for the disadvantaged areas in the Common Agricultural Policy rural development plan. [26233/01]

Michael Ring

Ceist:

249 Mr. Ring asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Rural Development if he will provide the maps of mountain areas in order that Deputies will be in a position to inform their constituents as to the location of such areas within their counties. [26234/01]

Michael Ring

Ceist:

250 Mr. Ring asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Rural Development the number of farmers who will lose out in the mountain areas following the recent proposal on mountain areas; and the estimated losses in this regard post 2003 based on the current proposal. [26235/01]

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

I propose to take Questions Nos. 247 to 250 inclusive, together.

The following table sets out the statistics requested by the Deputy. It is not practical to give the amounts paid to each individual farmer given that there are 103,000 applicants involved. However, the total amounts paid on a county by county basis are shown on the table together with the amount of compensation paid to date.

Of the 103,000 applications, some 3,429 cases, as shown in the table, have insufficient forage and are ineligible for payment. In addition, it would seem that 3,861 cases do not have the required minimum stocking density of 0.15 lus/ha. These cases are being examined at present with a view to establishing the level and type of stock being maintained on the holding.

Furthermore, there are 4,660 cases which have problems with their area aid applications and these will be paid if and when the area aid query is resolved and they meet the eligibility criteria under the area-based compensatory allowance scheme.

2001 Area-based Compensatory Allowances Scheme

County	No. of farmers who indicated that they wished to apply for new scheme	No. of farmers with insufficient forage i.e. less than 3 hectares	Amount paid including compensation£m	Amount of compensation (only) paid£m
Carlow	858	122	1.293	0.177
Cavan	4,949	223	7.481	0.332
Clare	6,334	78	11.336	0.492
Cork	7,262	391	11.883	1.002
Donegal	8,065	139	11.175	1.318
Dublin	131	19	0.147	0.027
Galway	12,659	190	18.701	0.880
Kerry	7,782	109	13.238	1.214
Kildare	500	90	0.632	0.040
Kilkenny	1,845	130	3.082	0.206
Laois	1,680	100	2.582	0.173
Leitrim	3,599	63	5.092	0.353
Limerick	2,972	212	4.514	0.117
Longford	2,519	64	3.979	0.136
Louth	768	74	0.804	0.090
Mayo	12,166	100	16.723	1.170
Meath	1,344	167	1.753	0.054
Monaghan	3,959	99	5.613	0.188
Offaly	2,369	123	3.493	0.123
Roscommon	6,075	52	9.528	0.314
Sligo	4,152	35	6.212	0.392
Tipperary	4,366	247	7.076	0.387
Waterford	1,532	198	2.163	0.156
Westmeath	2,561	196	3.833	0.096
Wexford	1,511	136	2.107	0.210
Wicklow	1,765	72	3.426	0.646
Totals	103,723	3,429	157.866	10.293

I expect that the revised scheme, which has been submitted to the European Commission for approval, can be fully funded within the overall allocation of 1,490.7 million for the measure in the CAP rural development plan, 2000-06.

The number of overall winners under the revised scheme increases from 72,000 to 80,000, the additional 8,000 all being farmers whose holdings include mountain land. All farmers with mountain type land only will gain under the scheme now being proposed when compared to what they would receive under the scheme agreed as part of the CAP rural development plan. It is estimated that some 5,600 farmers with predominantly lowland farms but with some mountain type land will lose an average of £415 from 2004 onwards when compared to the average amount paid to them under the old animal based headage schemes in the years 1998 – 2000. A similar situation also applies outside the hill areas.

Maps of mountain type grazing are stored in digital format and are not readily printable to a scale that would be useful for farmers. However, from next year pre-printed area aid applications will identify those land parcels which are designated mountain type grazing.