Trevor Sargent (Dublin North, Green Party)
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Question 850: To ask the Minister for Agriculture and Food if she will consider the case of a person (details supplied) in County Longford; and if she will further consider an appeal in order that this person can benefit from the early retirement schemes. [24456/05]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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It was a requirement of the 1994 scheme of early retirement from farming that an applicant have practised farming as a main occupation for the ten years before his-her retirement. For the purposes of the scheme, farming as a main occupation was interpreted as deriving at least half of total income from the farm, with off-farm work taking up less than half of all working time.

The person made an application in 1998 under the previous early retirement scheme. In May 1999, my Department asked him for documentary evidence of his farm income, non-farm income, benefit received and off-farm working hours. As he did not reply to this request his application could not be processed. He was notified of this in August 2001 and was also told that he had the right to appeal the decision. However no appeal was submitted.

My Department has no record of an application by the person named for the current early retirement scheme. This scheme includes a provision under which, if an intending applicant is unable to meet certain scheme conditions for reasons beyond his or her control, he or she may ask to have those conditions waived or modified. Without knowing the full details of his case, however, it is not possible to say whether this option would be open to the person named.