Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)

Ireland implemented the single payment scheme in January 2005. The special beef premium scheme, with the slaughter premium scheme, were the only schemes under which the deadline for the receipt of applications was 31 December 2004. This meant that as many farmers as possible submitted their applications in late December 2004 so that they could benefit from the special beef premium.

Under the 2004 scheme, applications for in excess of 2.4 million animals were lodged, of which almost 1.4 million were quota animals, that is, first age and bull categories. The application figure in each of the previous three years was 1.9 million animals. During December alone, applications in respect of 930,000 animals were submitted, compared to 600,000 during December 2003. More than 300,000 animals were applied on during the final two days of December.

The background to this issue is that under the special beef premium scheme each member state has an individual national ceiling or quota. Ireland's quota for 2004 was 1,077,458 animals. This quota is in respect of animals submitted under the first age and bull categories, as there is no quota for second age animals. However, Article 4.4 of Council Regulation EC 1254/1999 requires that a proportionate reduction be applied to the second age category where the national ceiling is breached.

Following discussions with the farming organisations in late 2003, it was decided that any overshoot reduction would not apply to the first 25 animals submitted by individual farmers. It is important to stress, therefore, that this decision, which was taken to assist small-scale producers, means that a farmer who applied for premium under the 2004 scheme in respect of a total of 25 animals or less will not suffer a reduction. In addition, all other farmers will be exempt from the quota reduction on their first 25 animals.

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