Marcella Corcoran Kennedy (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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138. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if the national reserve will be as substantial in 2016 as it was in 2015; if those who did not apply in 2015 will be entitled to apply in 2016; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29346/15]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The National Reserve in 2015 is based on 3% of the Basic Payment Scheme financial ceiling, which is estimated at providing approximately €24 million in funding. Based on the level of applications, with some 6,500 having been received, it is expected that there will be considerable demand on the National Reserve fund in 2015.

From 2016 onwards there is no designated funding for the National Reserve. The only source of funding available to the National Reserve will be clawback from the sale of entitlements without land and from unused entitlements, so the available resource could be limited. It is however expected that the level of demand in 2016 and subsequent years will be significantly less than in 2015 which was the first year of operation of the National Reserve under the Basic Payment Scheme. Those who did not apply to the National Reserve in 2015 will be entitled to apply in 2016.