Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael)
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Question 357: To ask the Minister for Agriculture and Food if she will clarify the conditions attached to people who availed of the early farm retirement scheme in 1995 that is those who gave up their farm; and if they were guaranteed a set income from same irrespective of other income once it was not derived from farming. [15963/06]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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The payment of a pension under the 1994-1999 Scheme of Early Retirement from Farming is conditional on the requirements of the Scheme being met, as set out in the Scheme document and to which the applicant agreed to be bound on joining the Scheme. The primary conditions are that the applicant undertakes to cease commercial farming and transfers his/her land to an eligible transferee for the period of the pension.

While the pension will continue to be paid provided the conditions of the Scheme are met, it can only be paid as a supplement to any national retirement pension to which the participant, and his or her spouse or partner in a joint management arrangement, is entitled. This is a requirement of the EU Council Regulations under which the Scheme was introduced and means that the value of any such national retirement pension payable must be deducted from the early retirement pension. The same rules apply to the current Scheme, which was introduced in November 2000.