Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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101. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if provision will be made in the National Reserve for Old Young Farmers to ensure that such farmers, who had their deeds stamped subsequent to the allocation of a herd number, and who were not able to avail of the Installation Aid Scheme, will have their application for the National Reserve considered, on the basis of the date of the stamping of the deed, rather than the allocation of the herd number; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18097/15]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Applications under phase 2 of the National Reserve for the group commonly referred to as ‘Old Young Farmers’ opened on 1 April 2015. This measure will cater for farmers who established their holdings in 2008 or 2009, who comply with the definition of young farmer for the purposes of the National Reserve ‘young farmer’ priority category, but who missed out on both the Young Farmer Installation Scheme which closed for applications in 2008 and the young farmer category of the National Reserve which caters for farmers who commenced farming since 2010.

While the Young Farmer Installation Scheme closed for applications on 14 October 2008, I have opted to extend the eligibility date back to include eligible ‘Old Young Farmers’ who established their holdings between 1 January 2008 and 31 December 2009. In this way I have granted the maximum possible flexibility regarding the date of establishment of holdings. Under all of the measures pertaining to the Basic Payment Scheme the date of establishment of the holding is the date the herd number is allocated to the farmer.