Ned O'Keeffe
Ceist:384 Mr. N. O'Keeffe asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food if an overpayment will be waived in respect of a person (details supplied) in County Cork. [17441/02]
Written Answers. - Farm Retirement Scheme.
The 1994 scheme of early retirement from farming and its successor introduced in November 2000 are both governed by EU Council regulations. It is a requirement of these regulations that the early retirement pension may only be paid as a supplement to any national retirement pension payable. This means that any national retirement pension payable to a participant in the scheme must be deducted from his or her early retirement pension.
The overpayment for the person named, amounting to €163.48, arose from the concurrent payment to her of non-contributory old age pension and the full amount of early retirement pension. My Department is obliged to recover all overpayments under the scheme, as failure to do so would jeopardise its obligations with regard to EU funds. However, my Department will consider sympathetically any proposals the person named may wish to make to repay the full amount over a period of time.