Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 5 October 2021
744. Deputy Matt Carthy asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of farmers that are expected to gain approval for the organic farming scheme in September 2021; the outstanding matters that are required to be addressed; if such holdings were horticultural, tillage or other; the mean, median, and mode of these holdings; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [47585/21]
Amharc ar fhreagraA total of 317 applications were received under the 2021 Organic Farming Scheme. I am pleased to advise that 261 OFS approval letters have already issued to applicants, while five farmers have decided not to proceed with their applications.
My Department has contacted another 51 applicants, from across all sectors, with regard to the information supplied by them in respect of their applications. We will be in a position to further evaluate their applications on receipt of the details requested. These relate to issues concerning their BPS applications with regard to land parcel description. At this stage, it is not possible to determine the enterprise type of these outstanding applications due to the absence of land parcels details on some of the applications.
