John O'Mahony (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Question 532: To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food when a payment under the farm improvement scheme will be made to a person (details supplied) in County Mayo; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31936/08]

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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The person concerned submitted an application to my Department under the Farm Improvement Scheme on 30 October 2007. These applications are being processed by my Department up to the level of funding provided for the Scheme in the 2006 Partnership agreement, Towards 2016.

John O'Mahony (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Question 533: To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food when a payment under the farm improvement scheme will be made to a person (details supplied) in County Mayo; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31937/08]

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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I assume the Deputy is referring to the application by the person concerned for grant-aid under the Farm Waste Management Scheme. The claim is being processed by my Department and I would expect that payment will be made in the near future provided that the claim is in compliance with the terms and conditions of the Scheme.

John O'Mahony (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Question 534: To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food the number of applications awaiting payment under the farm improvement scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31938/08]

John O'Mahony (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Question 535: To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will make payments to all applicants who submitted their applications under the farm improvement scheme on or before the 31 October 2008 cut off date; when these payments will be made; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31939/08]

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 534 and 535 together.

The Farm Improvement Scheme was introduced by my Department in July 2007 with funding of €79 million as agreed under the 2006 Partnership agreement, Towards 2016, and was suspended on 31 October 2007 as applications had reached this level of funding. 12,675 applications were received from farmers prior to the closing date of the Scheme and these applications are currently being processed within my Department up to the level of funding made available for the Scheme. To date in 2008, €6.518 million has been spent on the Scheme compared to €0.014 million in 2007.