Denis Naughten (Longford-Roscommon, Fine Gael)
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Question 982: To ask the Minister for Agriculture and Food the status of her Department's request to the EU Commission for approval to increase the rate of pension for existing participants of the ERS or early retirement scheme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [1389/06]

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. My Department's original 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. I have not put proposals to the Commission for an increase in the pension under either scheme.