Seymour Crawford (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Question 69: To ask the Minister for Agriculture and Food if she will index link the early retirement pension; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [17307/05]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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The rate of pension payable under the 1994 scheme of early retirement from farming is the maximum amount provided for by the EU Council regulation under which the scheme was introduced. The regulation does not provide for indexation of payments.

My Department's proposals for the current early retirement scheme, which commenced on 27 November 2000 and is one of the measures in the CAP rural development plan for the period 2000-06, included provision for annual increases in pension over the period of the plan. The European Commission rejected this proposal and insisted on legal grounds that a fixed rate be set instead.

Michael Noonan (Limerick East, Fine Gael)
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Question 70: To ask the Minister for Agriculture and Food the assessment carried out by her Department regarding the implications of the single farm payment for the ERS; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [17305/05]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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My Department has been 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 has proved possible in the context of the EU regulations governing the single payment scheme and following lengthy discussions with the European Commission, provision has been 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, a concession agreed with the European Commission will allow family members who take over a holding that was leased to third parties during the reference period to have access to entitlements from the national reserve. This will benefit the family members of retired farmers who decide to take up farming.

Participants in the current early retirement scheme who would have farmed during part or all of the reference period can activate entitlements and lease them to their existing transferee. If the transferee does not want the entitlements, the transferor or retired farmer has until 2007 within which to lease or transfer the entitlements, with land, to another farmer.