Niall Collins (Limerick, Fianna Fail)
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62. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine when payments will commence under the 2013 disadvantaged area scheme; the number of estimated payments that will be paid in the first week of payments; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39525/13]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Payments under the 2013 Disadvantaged Areas Scheme will begin issuing, on target, tomorrow, 25 September. While there is no regulatory date by which payments must commence, it is generally recognised and indeed acknowledged in the Farmers’ Charter, that the third week in September of any given year is the earliest feasible payment date, given the volume and complexity of processing involved.

While payments will begin issuing tomorrow, I should emphasise that payments runs thereafter continue on a twice weekly basis, with individual cases being paid as they are confirmed eligible. It should be appreciated, however, that many applicants, who declare land situated in a Disadvantaged Area are not eligible for payment under the Scheme. Many of these applicants do not maintain any animals and those that do maintain animals do not keep sufficient livestock to meet the minimum stocking density of 0.15 livestock units per hectare. This is a normal feature of the Disadvantaged Area Scheme. For example, in excess of 5,000 applicants under the 2012 DAS Scheme were found to be non-compliant, as they had insufficient stocking density on their holdings. The figure for 2013 is almost 10,000, in addition to which, there are in excess of 6,000 applicants who held no stock during 2013. I should emphasise, however, that many of those currently showing as having insufficient stock will ultimately satisfy the requirement – the minimum retention period being seven consecutive months; there will be a steady flow of cases each month where compliance with this retention period will be confirmed, thereby allowing payments to issue.

In addition, in excess of 15,000 applications have been identified with area-related issues; these are being addressed and resolved though direct correspondence with the individual applicants, in line with normal procedures. Again, as individual cases are resolved, they will be immediately further processed, with a view to payment issuing as soon as possible thereafter.

However, insofar as the initial payment run is concerned, I can confirm that payments worth some €110 million are issuing tomorrow to over 50,000 applicants; as mentioned, payments will continue to issue on a twice-weekly basis thereafter. I am confident that by year-end the cumulative value of payments that will have issue under the 2013 Scheme will be in the region of €190 million.