Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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Question 350: To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food the number of sheep farmers who applied for additional single farm payment from the national reserve element of the sheep package announced on 16 May 2007; the number of sheep farmers who have been paid single farm payment from this measure to date; the number of outstanding cases which remain unpaid; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17400/08]

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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The 2007 National Reserve was advertised on 16 May 2007 with a closing date of 8 June 2007. On initial examination of the Department's records it appeared that up to 8,000 farmers could qualify under the special sheep measure of the National Reserve but up to 11 June only 1,000 farmers had applied under this category. The deadline for applications was then extended to 22 June 2007. In addition my Department wrote to the farmers identified as likely qualifiers inviting them to apply for the measure and this resulted in the number of applications increasing to 6,000. To date some €2.1m has been paid to 2,700 successful applicants and some 900 applicants have been rejected as not meeting the qualifying criteria. The remaining applications are still being processed.

It was recently decided to amend the criteria by increasing the existing threshold of the Single Payment for qualification for the 2007 National Reserve special sheep measure from €6,000 to €10,000. It is estimated that another 1,300 farmers could be eligible for this category and my Department will now write to these farmers inviting them to apply.