Michael Ring
Ceist:78 Mr. Ring asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Rural Development the reason a person (details supplied) in County Mayo did not receive headage or area based payments for 2000 and 2001. [12311/02]
Written Answers. - Grant Payments.
No area aid application was received in the Department from the person named for 2000. Therefore, no area aid based payments could be made to him in 2000. In regard to the 2001 area aid scheme, his application was fully processed with an area determined for payment purposes of 27.23 hectares.
The animal based headage schemes were replaced in 2001 by the area based compensatory allowance scheme. A condition of the new scheme is that applicants must meet a minimum stocking level of 0.15 livestock units per forage hectare, but according to my Department's records, the stocking density of the holding does not meet the minimum stocking density. My Department will be in contact with the person named shortly with a view to establishing the type of farming activity being pursued. A decision on entitlement to area based compensatory allowance will then be made.