Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 24 February 2004
231 Mr. Ring asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food when decoupling takes place, the way in which a person (details supplied) in County Mayo will be affected as they did not have a suckler cow quota or sheep quota in the years 2000, 2001 and 2002. [5977/04]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs the Deputy is no doubt aware, the single decoupled payment will be based on the average number of animals — or the average number of hectares in the case of arable aid — on which payments were made under the livestock premia and arable aid schemes in respect of the three reference years 2000, 2001 and 2002. The single payment is calculated by taking the three yearly average number of animals and arable hectares which attracted payment and multiplying them by the payment rate for 2002 in respect of livestock or by €383.04 per hectare in the case of arable aid. Entitlements are calculated by dividing this single payment amount by the average number of hectares over the three-year period. Farmers for whom entitlements have been established must activate those entitlements in 2005 by continuing to farm and submitting an area aid declaration in that year.
Since the person named had no animals that attracted payment under the suckler cow premium and ewe premium schemes during the three year reference period, he will not have any entitlements established in respect of those schemes. However, he will have entitlements established based on the average number of animals that qualified for payment in the reference period under the slaughter premium and special beef premium schemes.
While the European Commission's detailed rules regulations on decoupling have not yet been agreed, my Department has commenced the work of establishing entitlements for every farmer in the country. My Department intends to establish interim single payment entitlements for each farmer and to notify those entitlements to individual farmers during 2004. Definitive details will issue early in 2005. It will not be possible, however, to finalise this work until such time as the Commission's detailed rules are fully agreed. This will be well into spring of this year.
