Michael Lowry (Tipperary North, Independent)
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Question 342: To ask the Minister for Agriculture and Food her views on correspondence (details supplied); the position regarding the recommendations outlined in a letter; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [38750/05]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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The letter concerns the report by the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food on the early retirement schemes operated by my Department. The committee's examination of the early retirement schemes provided a welcome opportunity to air a wide range of issues and I believe that this in itself has been helpful in clarifying the position. I have provided a detailed response to the report. Regrettably, there are a number of the committee's recommendations that I have not been able to accept. They are precluded by elements of the EU regulations under which the current scheme and its predecessor are operated. Indeed when the same issues were raised by retired farmers with the European Commission, the Commission concluded that my Department was operating the scheme correctly. The committee made a number of other recommendations which I am considering.

As far as the single payment scheme is concerned, my Department was aware from an early stage in the negotiations of the possible implications for retired farmers who had leased their holdings. In so far as it proved possible in the context of the EU regulations governing the single payment scheme, and following lengthy discussions with the European Commission, provision was made under the rules of the scheme to address some of the concerns of retired farmers.

It was open to participants in the current early retirement scheme who farmed during part or all of the reference period to activate entitlements in 2005 and lease them to their existing transferee. In cases where the transferees did not want the entitlements, the transferors, retired farmers, who have already activated the entitlements have until 2007 within which to lease or transfer the entitlements, with land, to another farmer.