Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)
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503. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will provide a breakdown per county of the number of successful applicants under the agri-environment option scheme 3; the total amount of funds allocated to each county under the scheme; the total number of ineligible applicants per county; the number of applicants awaiting a determination on their application; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42386/13]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The Agri-Environment Option Scheme has had a very positive uptake, which is why I was more than happy to open AEOS 3 in 2012, despite fiscal constraints. I secured €20 million per annum for the Scheme, allowing for a maximum payment of €4,000 per annum and a five year contract. The Scheme was oversubscribed, with a total of 9,729 applications received, therefore not all could be accommodated within the budget and a process of ranking and selection, as set out clearly in the scheme terms and conditions, was used.

Acceptance into the Scheme was established using the predetermined selection criteria as follows:

1.farmers in the Boora region of Co. Offaly who chose Wild Bird Cover Option B (Grey Partridge) as one of their selected options,

2.farmers with a minimum of 0.5 hectares of designated land,

3.farm partnerships,

4.farmers who previously participated in REPS commencing with smallest farms. and

5.others based on farm size (again favouring smaller holdings).

All eligible applicants in category 1, 2 and 3 were accepted into the Scheme. Based on the funding available farmers in category 4 with 22.06 hectares of utilisable agricultural area and below were successful. All applicants received a determination on their application and 6,000 were approved for participation in the scheme of which 5,981 applicants are currently active. Of the 3,748 not in the Scheme, 351 had invalid applications, 42 withdrew from the Scheme and 3,355 were excluded on the basis of the selection criteria. A number of applicants have appealed their status and these are being dealt with on an ongoing basis by my officials.

The tables below detail the number of successful applicants under the Agri-Environment Options Scheme 3 and the total number of applicants not in the Scheme on a County by County basis. The table named ‘Successful Applicants’ also shows the estimated allocation of funding per County on a yearly basis.

SUCCESSFUL APPLICANTS

UNSUCCESSFUL OR WITHDRAWN APPLICANTS