Jack Wall (Kildare South, Labour)
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Question 699: To ask the Minister for Agriculture and Food his plans to improve the benefits of the early farm retirement scheme; the time scale of such proposals; the basis for such proposals; the number of farmers who have accepted the scheme over each of the past five years nationally and the number in County Kildare; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [9586/07]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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Proposals for a new Early Retirement Scheme, with a maximum pension payment rate of €15,000, have been included in the draft Rural Development Programme for the period 2007–2013. The draft Programme was sent to the Commission in late December to begin the approval process. I cannot be definite as to how long this process will take but I continue to pursue early approval and my officials are in ongoing contact with their counterparts in the Commission services.

Details of the number of successful applications under the 2000 Scheme of Early Retirement from Farming, which closed to new applications on 31 December 2006, and details of such applications from County Kildare, are set out in the table for each of the years 2002 to 2007.