There is no provision for additional payments to participants in the early retirement schemes concerning leased quotas. However, the Department of Agriculture and Food was aware from an early stage in the negotiations leading to the introduction of the single payment scheme of the possible implications for retired farmers who had leased their holdings. In so far as it proved possible in the context of the EU regulations governing the single payment scheme, and following lengthy discussions with the European Commission, provision was made under the rules of the single payment scheme to address some of the concerns of retired farmers.
As participants in the 1994 scheme of early retirement from farming had retired before the start of the reference period in 2000, they are not in a position to claim entitlements under the single payment scheme.
However, following agreement with the European Commission, a special category has been included in the national reserve for farmers who inherit or otherwise receive land free of charge or for a nominal sum from a farmer who retired or died before 16 May 2005, where the land in question was leased to a third party during the reference period. This will benefit the family members of retired farmers who decide to take up farming. Only landholders actively engaged in farming can receive entitlements from the national reserve. A separate category, category A, was included in the 2005 national reserve application form to cater for this group. Similar arrangements will apply under the 2006 and subsequent years' national reserve.
It was open to participants in the current early retirement scheme, who would have farmed during part or all of the reference period, to activate entitlements in 2005 and lease them to their existing transferee. If the transferee did not want the entitlements, a transferor, retired farmer, who activated the entitlements in 2005 has until 2007 either to lease the entitlements or transfer them, with land, to another farmer.