Willie Penrose (Westmeath, Labour)
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Question 501: To ask the Minister for Agriculture and Food the number of applications to her Department for force majeure payments; the number that have been accepted; the reason therefore; if any applicants were accepted due to suffering from chronic illness such as long standing back difficulties or other illnesses; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [11604/07]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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The criteria for Force Majeure/Exceptional Circumstances are laid down in Article 40 of Council Regulation EC No. 1782/2003.

Force Majeure provides for circumstances on the holding of a nature that can best be described as sudden, unforeseen and beyond the control of the applicant — the consequences of which in spite of the exercise of all due care, could not have been avoided except at the cost of excessive sacrifice.

Force Majeure does not provide for the allocation of additional entitlements, but allows for the exclusion of certain years during the reference period 2000-2002, where production was adversely affected in the calculation of Single Payment entitlements or if the whole reference period is affected then the alternative reference period 1997-1999 can be utilised.

Force Majeure is recognised under six different categories:

1. The death of a farmer

2. Long-term professional incapacity of the farmer

3. A severe natural disaster gravely affecting the holding's agricultural land

4. The accidental destruction of livestock buildings on the holding

5. An epizootic affecting part or all of the farmer's livestock

6. Other exceptional circumstances not covered above.

There have been a total of 17,642 applications under the Force Majeure measure of the Single Payments scheme. 4,472 of these applications have been accepted and 35 are still pending final decision. The applications accepted include cases in all six categories outlined above with the majority of cases covered by Category 1 — Death of a farmer and Category 2 — Long-term professional incapacity of the farmer which would, of course, include applicants suffering from chronic illness.