Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if interim funding will be made available to farmers in the Twelve Bens/Maam Turk area of Connemara, who left the REP scheme in 2012 and were paid interim funding until November 2012 and who have applied for agri environment option scheme 3, for the period from November 2012 to the commencement of the AEOS 3 programme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18157/13]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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My Department has not made any interim payments to farmers in the Twelve Bens/Maam Turk area of Connemara who left the Rural Environment Protection Scheme in scheme in 2012 and I have no plans to provide for such payments. Applicants with designated land, including those in the areas mentioned will receive priority in the selection process for the Agri-environment Options Scheme. The processing of applications is nearing completion and I expect to be in a position to inform all applicants of the outcome in the next few weeks. Payments under the scheme will issue to successful AEOS III applicants from the commencement date of their AEOS contract.