Written answers

Tuesday, 6 July 2010

Department of Agriculture and Food

Grant Payments

10:00 am

Photo of Seán SherlockSeán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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Question 606: To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will expedite a payment to dairy farmers (details supplied). [30126/10]

Photo of Brendan SmithBrendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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The Dairy Hardship Compensation Fund is part of a package of measures agreed at the Council of Agriculture and Fisheries Ministers, as part of which €300 million was made available to support dairy farmers across the EU who were severely affected by the fall in milk prices. Each Member State's share of this fund was calculated based on their milk production in the 2008/2009 milk quota year, and on this basis, Ireland received €11.5 million.

Having consulted widely, I decided to allocate the money on a flat rate basis, as it was agreed that this was the optimum method of allocation to those dairy farmers most affected by the crisis. In order to keep red tape to a minimum, it was decided that dairy farmers would not have to submit an application for payment. Instead, payments were made to eligible farmers using the Single Payment System, the most efficient way possible. The flat rate payment equated to a rate of €590 to each farmer. While Member States were required to make the payments by the end of June 2010, the approach adopted by my Department allowed payments to commence in early March, with the majority of payments issuing at that stage.

When initially considering eligibility under the Fund, it had been decided that only one payment would be made to each qualifying milk producer, Milk Partnerships being deemed to represent a single milk producer. Subsequently, following review, it was decided that an individual payment would be made to each member of a Milk Partnership and the necessary arrangements were made to give effect to this decision. I am pleased to say that this work has now been completed and payments will issue to 91 of the 105 partnership cases later this week. Those issues, highlighted at computer validation, which are currently preventing payment to the remaining 14 cases, are currently being investigated and, immediately they are resolved, payments will issue to the individuals concerned.

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