Liam Aylward (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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Question 321: To ask the Minister for Agriculture and Food if she will reinstate payment under the early retirement scheme to a person (details supplied) in County Kilkenny in view of the circumstances of their case. [43453/06]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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It is a requirement of the EU Council Regulation under which the 1994 Early Retirement Scheme was introduced that the Early Retirement Pension can be paid only 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 means the entire value of any such national retirement pension payable must be deducted from the Early Retirement Pension. The person named was reminded by my Department in July 2006 of the requirement to apply for a national retirement pension. Where details of a participant's entitlement or otherwise to a national retirement pension are not submitted to my Department, it is necessary to avoid overpayment to suspend payment of the Early Retirement pension until such time as they are received. In this case, the person named reached the age of 66 in November 2006. Accordingly the Early Retirement Pension has been suspended pending the receipt of details of the outcome of her application for a national retirement pension.