Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Question 437: To ask the Minister for Agriculture and Food when a person (details supplied) in County Mayo will be allocated additional entitlements from the national reserve as a Category D applicant. [37355/06]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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The person named submitted an application for an allocation of entitlements from the 2005 Single Payment Scheme National Reserve under Category D.

Category D caters for farmers who commenced farming after 31 December 2002 or who commenced farming in 2002 but who received no direct payments in respect of that scheme year.

As Category D is a non-mandatory category of the National Reserve, any allocation made is subject to the Regional Unit Value. Should a farmer purchase or inherit entitlements with the land, the value of these entitlements must be less than the Regional Unit Value in order to receive a top-up.

The person named applied in respect of land that he had inherited. However, as he inherited entitlements with all of this land and the inherited entitlements were higher in value than the Regional Unit Value, the person named did not qualify under Category D of the National Reserve. A formal letter outlining my Department's decision on the National Reserve has issued to the person named.