Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Question 862: To ask the Minister for Agriculture and Food when a person (details supplied) in County Mayo will be supplied with a copy of their original application for the special beef premium. [24674/05]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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In response to the original provisional statement of entitlements under the single payment scheme, which issued to the person named detailing 36.18 entitlements, with a single payment value of €8,979.88, the person named contacted my Department pointing out that one application under the special beef premium scheme, lodged in 2000, was not taken into account on the statement. Having reviewed the case, my Department issued a revised statement to the person named, showing a single payment value of €10,687.21. As the application in question has now been taken into account for the establishment of entitlements, a copy of the application should not be necessary.

Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Question 863: To ask the Minister for Agriculture and Food when the special beef premium appeal will be finalised for a person (details supplied) in County Mayo. [24676/05]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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Appeals require individual examination and are dealt with in the order in which they are received. This appeal was received in the agriculture appeals office on 5 September 2005 and was assigned to an appeals officer on 13 September 2005.

The appeals officer will be in contact with the appellant shortly to arrange an oral hearing. It is not expected that there will be any undue delay in dealing with this case.

Ned O'Keeffe (Cork East, Fianna Fail)
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Question 865: To ask the Minister for Agriculture and Food the position regarding an appeal lodged by a person (details supplied) in County Limerick in 2005 in respect of the EU single payment. [24739/05]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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The person named, having been notified that the circumstances outlined by her did not satisfy the criteria for force majeure-exceptional circumstances under Article 40 of Council Regulation (EC) No. 1782/2003 submitted an appeal to the Independent single payment appeals committee.

Following a full examination of the circumstances outlined in the appeal, the single payment appeals committee made a recommendation and a letter issued to the person named on 28 July 2005. The finding of the appeals committee was that the original decision taken by my Department should be upheld. The decisions of the single payment unit and the independent single payment appeals committee were based on the fact that the medical circumstances put forward, existed since the mid 1990's, and therefore did not satisfy the force majeure criteria under the EU regulations governing the single payment scheme.

The person named also applied to the single payment scheme national reserve under categories B and C. Category B caters for farmers who between 1 January 2000 and 19 October 2003, made an investment in production capacity in a farming sector for which a direct payment under livestock premia and-or arable aid schemes would have been payable during the reference period 2000 to 2002. The person named applied to be considered under section (ii) of category B on the basis that she purchased suckler cow quota rights in one or more of the scheme years 2001, 2002 or 2003. My Department's records show that she purchased 26 suckler cow premia quota rights in the year 2002 and accordingly her application under this category is successful subject to verification of her 2005 single payment scheme application.

Category C caters for farmers who, between 1 January 2000 and 19 October 2003, sold their milk quota into the milk quota restructuring scheme and converted their enterprise to a farming sector for which a direct payment under livestock premia and-or arable aid schemes would have been payable during the reference period 2000 to 2002. Her application under this category is at present being considered and the outcome will be determined shortly.

The EU rules governing the single payment scheme stipulate that an applicant who is found to be eligible under more than one category in the reserve may only receive an allocation of entitlements under whichever category is most beneficial to him-her. As soon as the application under category C is finalized and the outcome compared with that under category B, the person named will be notified of her allocation under the national reserve.

Ned O'Keeffe (Cork East, Fianna Fail)
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Question 866: To ask the Minister for Agriculture and Food the position regarding an appeal in relation to the imposition of a penalty in respect of the 2004 EU bovine premium scheme. [24740/05]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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The person named applied for premium on 32 animals under the 2004 suckler cow premium scheme, 29 animals under the special beef premium scheme and 12 animals under the slaughter premium scheme.

At an integrated on-farm inspection on 7 July 2004, it was found that two animals applied on under the suckler cow scheme had both ear tags lost and were, therefore, rejected as non-compliant with the identification and registration requirements of the scheme. The person named was notified of the outcome of the inspection on 1 September 2004 and advised that a penalty would be applied to payments due on foot of his premium applications. The person named submitted an appeal to the Agriculture Appeals Office, but following a review and oral hearing, the original decision was upheld.

Payments in respect of the applications lodged are each subject to a reduction penalty of 2.53%, in accordance with the governing EU regulations.

Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Question 867: To ask the Minister for Agriculture and Food the reason a person (details supplied) in County Mayo has not been awarded their beef premium. [24742/05]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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The person named submitted two applications under the 2004 special beef premium scheme, in respect of a total of four animals, the equivalent of 2.4 livestock units. Having submitted an area aid application with a declared area of 18.55 hectares, the person named was entitled to submit claims to a value of 33.39 livestock units, in line with the stocking limit of 1.8 livestock units per hectare. However, the person named was in possession of a milk quota of 133,069 litres, which equates with 33.42 livestock units, using the national average yield per cow of 3,982 litres. Therefore, as the animals submitted under the special beef premium scheme were in excess of the stocking limit, no payment wasdue.

The person named has availed of the opportunity to appeal this decision to the agriculture appeals office. That office, which is statutorily independent of my Department, will issue a determination in due course.