Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 1343: To ask the Minister for Agriculture and Food if and when a person (details suppled) in County Kildare will qualify for national reserve; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [1545/07]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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As indicated in an earlier reply to the Deputy, the person named submitted an application for an allocation of entitlements from the 2005 Single Payment Scheme National Reserve under Category A. Category A caters for farmers who inherited land or received land free of charge or for a nominal sum from a farmer who had retired or died before 16 May, 2005 and who had leased out his/her holding to a third party during the reference period 2000 to 2002. The person named was not successful under this category as the land acquired was not received free of charge or for a nominal sum.

The person named submitted an appeal, through his Agricultural Consultant and provided additional documentation in support of his appeal. In all such cases, the procedure is that all contentions put forward in support of an appeal are first of all reviewed within my Department to establish whether there is sufficient evidence to warrant any change to the original decision. In this regard the documentation provided has been examined and his file has been forwarded to the Independent Single Payments Appeals Committee who will carry out a full review of the case and will correspond directly with the person named following the outcome of their review.

The person named also submitted an application for an allocation of entitlements from the 2006 Single Payment Scheme National Reserve under Category B.

The position is that processing of the 2006 National Reserve applications will commence shortly and a formal letter outlining my Department's decision on the 2006 National Reserve will issue to the person named as soon as his application has been processed.

Liam Aylward (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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Question 1344: To ask the Minister for Agriculture and Food the progress on the application for consolidation of entitlements by a person (details supplied) in County Tipperary. [1574/07]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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The person named submitted an application under three measures of the 2005 Single Farm Payment Scheme — New Entrant, Private Contract Clause and Consolidation.

The person named was accepted under the New Entrant measure and the number of entitlements granted to him was based on the year 2002. This increased the number of entitlements granted to him from 8.35 standard entitlements to 25.06 standard entitlements. He subsequently had a further 17.88 entitlements added by the way of Private Contract Clause.

In consequence, the person named increased his entitlements as a result of being accepted under New Entrant and Private Contract Clause. However his Consolidation application has been rejected because there is no loss of land that was farmed during the reference period and which was used to establish his entitlements. To be considered under the Consolidation measure, such lands have to be accounted for as a result of an expired lease/rental agreement; the acquisition of land by a Local Authority for the purpose of a Compulsory Purchase Order or the afforestation of land under the Afforestation Premium Scheme.