Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)

Some 17,500 farmers submitted applications to the national reserve but when account is taken of the number of farmers who applied under two or more categories over 23,000 files have to be processed.

While much work has been done in processing the vast majority of the applications, none of the applications has yet been processed to finality with national reserve allocations attributed. Some 11% of the applications received are still under query with the farmers concerned as my Department has sought additional information in support of their applications. Processing of all applications is continuing and the intention is to make allocations to successful applicants within the next two weeks. I will be making a formal announcement in due course setting out the various criteria for allocating entitlements.

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