Michael Lowry (Tipperary North, Independent)
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Question 385: To ask the Minister for Agriculture and Food the number of applications received by her Department from each county for entitlements from the national reserve under the single farm payment; the average length her Department has been in receipt of same; the reason she has not made a decision on the national reserve in over 300 days; if she will immediately allocate entitlements to reserve applicants; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [12969/06]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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The position is that 17,500 farmers submitted applications to the national reserve but over 6,000 farmers applied under two or more categories which means that over 23,000 files have to be processed. In dealing with the new single payment scheme, priority was given to establishing the system and paying eligible farmers at the earliest date. I am satisfied this was achieved.

The following table sets out the number of farmers per county who applied under national reserve, some of whom applied under more than one category.

While much work has been done in processing the vast majority of the applications, none of the applications have yet been processed to finality with national reserve allocations attributed. Some 11% of the applications received are still under query with the farmers concerned as my Department has sought additional information in support of their applications.

In addition, the regulations contain certain "anti-accumulation" clauses which mean that a farmer may not qualify for an allocation under two or more categories. In such circumstances, an allocation will be made under the category that is most beneficial. Approximately 3,500 applicants to the national reserve have also applied under other measures, for example, force majeure and new entrant. The regulations provide that the farmers may not qualify under the reserve and under the other measures and because of this these 3,500 cases will have to be manually examined to see which measure is the most beneficial. Processing of all applications is continuing and the intention is to make allocations to successful applicants within the next two weeks.