Joe Walsh (Cork South West, Fianna Fail)
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Question 380: To ask the Minister for Agriculture and Food if payment under the single farm payment scheme will be made to a person (details supplied) in County Cork. [12847/06]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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The person named submitted an application for consideration in respect of the inheritance measure of the single payment scheme. His application has been fully processed and payment of €16,155.42, in respect of his 49.73 standard entitlements issued on 9 December 2005. The person named also submitted a private contract clause application to have entitlements with land transferred to him by way of a rental agreement. This application has been successfully processed and the payment due, €988.58, will issue shortly.

Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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Question 381: To ask the Minister for Agriculture and Food the reason behind the choosing of the three reference years for single farm payment; the further reason a person can go back behind these years in exceptional circumstances but cannot go forward; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [12857/06]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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The single payment scheme was introduced in Ireland in 2005 as part of the new measures agreed in the reform of the mid-term review of the Common Agricultural Policy. While member states were free to choose between different models of the single payment scheme, ranging from the historical model to various regional models, the reference period agreed by the Council of Ministers for the establishment of payment entitlements for individual farmers was the years 2000, 2001 and 2002. The entitlements were established based on a farmer's participation in the livestock premia schemes, arable aid scheme, etc., during the reference period. Provision was also made for the application of the principle of force majeure whereby any given farmer, whose circumstances were accepted as exceptional, could be allowed avail of an earlier reference period — 1997, 1998 and 1999. The dairy premium was added to the single payment based on a farmer's milk quota held on 31 March 2005. The sugar beet compensation will be incorporated in the single payment in 2006 and will be based on the 2001, 2002 and 2003 reference period.

The mid-term review proposals were published in early 2003 and contained details of the 2000 to 2002 reference period. If 2003 and subsequent years were included in the reference period, it would have enabled certain participants with a capacity to increase production to maximise their applications under the coupled livestock premia and arable aid schemes during 2003 and 2004 and, therefore, increase the level of their single payment at the expense of other farmers within the limits of the national ceiling provided under the EU regulations.