Mary Wallace (Meath, Fianna Fail)

The position in so far as payment under the 2005 single payment scheme is concerned is that some €1.199 billion has been paid to over 128,200 applicants, 99.9% of total eligible applicants, including €14.3 million in refunding the modulation reduction on the first €5,000 paid to each applicant.

There are a small number of cases which have not yet been paid. In some instances, the Department is awaiting legal documentation in the cases involving inheritance applications. There are other cases where farmers submitted 2005 single payment application forms but never submitted an application for the transfer of the single payment entitlements to them. The Department is arranging to make direct contact with the persons involved requesting them to submit the transfer application form immediately. The number of cases involved at this stage is extremely small but it is the Department's intention to pursue all of these cases in order that the farmers involved have an opportunity to apply for the transfer of entitlements.

The Department will process these applications as soon as they are received. If they are in order, the entitlements will be transferred to the 2005 single payment scheme applicant and payment for both 2005 and 2006 will be issued. Under the 2006 single payment scheme, €1.197 billion has been paid to 123,300 applicants. Full payment has been issued to 122,200 farmers, while a further 1,100 farmers have received the 50% advance payment. Farmers paid by the Department to date under the 2006 scheme account for almost 97% of all applicants. Any cases remaining to be paid are generally under query for one reason or another. The timely issue of payments to all farmers, including young farmers, is a priority for the Department.

The introduction of the single payment scheme in 2005 brought the new concept of payment entitlements into the direct payments system. Payment entitlements are not attached to land but are the property of the farmer active during the reference period and in receipt of direct payments under one or more of the livestock premium and arable aid schemes.

Payment entitlements may now be sold with or without land, but can only be sold without land once 80% has been used in one calendar year. On the other hand, entitlements may be leased to another farmer only if accompanied by an equivalent number of hectares of eligible land. Entitlements may also, of course, be transferred, with or without land, by gift or through inheritance. The registration details of entitlements may also be changed, for example, from one name to joint names or to partnerships.

It is incumbent on the Department to maintain a database of entitlements containing the name and herd number under which entitlements are registered with a view to ensuring that payment be issued to the correct holders of the entitlements for any year. When entitlements are transferred from one farmer to another or when the registration details of the herd number are changed, the parties must complete an application to have the registration details of the entitlements changed.

Additional information not given on the floor of the House.

The application forms to be completed by farmers engaged in transferring or changing the registration details of entitlements are available through the Department's website and local offices, as well as at Teagasc offices.

The closing date for receipt of applications to transfer entitlements for 2006 was 16 May 2006. However, where an entire holding and entitlements are being transferred within the ten-month period, such applications may be accepted at any time during the ten months. Some 6,000 applications have been received in the Department to transfer entitlements for the 2006 single payment scheme. Approximately 2,300 of those applications were received after the closing date and many have been received only in the past couple of months. Those late applications are, nevertheless, being processed.

The Department is making every effort to have all those applications processed as quickly as possible. Applications for the sale of entitlements with land, the lease of entitlements, the transfer of entitlements by gift or inheritance, or the transfer of entitlements to partnerships must be accompanied by appropriate documentation such as a copy of the deed of transfer or lease agreement. In over 50% of cases, the required documentation was not furnished with the original applications, thus necessitating further contact with the parties involved.

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