Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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903. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of farmers who received disadvantaged area scheme payments in each county in 2012 or 2013, whichever year has most up-to-date data available; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13847/14]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Payments under the 2013 Disadvantaged Areas Scheme begin issuing, on target, on 25 September. While there is no regulatory date by which DAS 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. To date, payments worth €199.1 million have issued to over 94,000 farmers.

Payments continue to issue on a weekly basis, with individual cases being paid the amount due 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.

Successive EU audits have made it clear that payments should not issue under Area Based schemes, including Single Farm and Disadvantaged Areas, until all queries associated with an application are resolved.

The payment position, on a county basis, is as outlined below.

2013 Disadvantaged Areas Scheme