Denis Naughten (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Independent)
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124. To ask the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht when persons approved and paid in previous years under the turf compensation scheme will be issued with their 2013 payment; when deliveries of turf will commence for those that have taken up this offer; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19607/13]

Jimmy Deenihan (Kerry North-West Limerick, Fine Gael)
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Some 2,668 applications for compensation under the cessation of turf cutting compensation scheme have been received and acknowledged by my Department. A total of 2,192 payments and 205 deliveries of turf have been made in respect of the applications received. Payments and turf deliveries have been made on the basis that applicants have indicated in their application forms that they fulfil all the qualifying criteria of the cessation of turf cutting compensation scheme. My Department has been checking, and is continuing to check, that all such criteria have been met in each case. Applications are currently being assessed with a view to beginning to issue payments in respect of 2013 in the coming weeks. An additional once-off payment of €500 will also be provided where legal agreements are signed with me, as Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht. My Department has begun to send out legal agreements to applicants. It will take some time for the Department’s contractor to have turf, suitable for domestic use, ready for delivery. I expect that such deliveries will begin in July or August next.