Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Question 552: To ask the Minister for Agriculture and Food when a person (details supplied) in County Mayo will receive payment from her Department due to the fact that they gave up supplying milk. [10150/06]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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There is a provision in the national reserve, category C, which caters for farmers who, between 1 January 2000 and 19 October 2003, sold the milk quota into the milk quota restructuring scheme and converted their enterprise to a farming sector for which a direct payment under livestock premia or arable aid schemes would have been payable during the reference period 2000 to 2002.

My Department has no record of an application to the national reserve from the person named. I will make arrangements to have an application form for the national reserve issued to the person named.

Tom Hayes (Tipperary South, Fine Gael)
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Question 553: To ask the Minister for Agriculture and Food when payment will issue to a person (details supplied) in County Tipperary under the single payment national reserve scheme; and if they are entitled to an additional payment under the single payment [i]force majeure[/i] in view of their spouse's illness. [10159/06]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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The person named submitted an application for an allocation of entitlements from the single payments scheme national reserve under category C.

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 or arable aid schemes would have been payable during the reference period 2000 to 2002.

The position is that over 23,000 applications for an allocation of entitlements from the national reserve were received when account is taken of farmers who applied under more than one category. Processing of these applications is continuing and the intention is to make allocations to successful applicants at the earliest opportunity. My Department will be in touch with individual applicants as soon as their applications are fully processed. Formal letters setting out my Department's decision will be issued.

The person named submitted an application for consideration of circumstances under the force majeure measure of the single payment scheme on 29 October 2004. Having been notified that the circumstances outlined by him did not satisfy the criteria for force majeure, exceptional circumstances, under Article 40 of Council Regulation (EC) No. 1782/2003, the person named submitted an appeal to the 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 1 December 2005. The findings of the appeals committee were that the original decision taken by my Department should be upheld. The decisions of the single payment unit and the single payment appeals committee were based on the fact that the TB depopulation predated the reference years by such a period as to have allowed the person named time to restock before the commencement of the reference period.

However, following these decisions my Department received additional information and medical evidence from the person named regarding the circumstances of this case. This information is currently being examined and a full response will issue shortly.