DED basis for 2005 SFP Reserve
Some 5,000 successful applicants will shortly receive National Reserve allocations worth €10.9m. But some 6,900 unsuccessful applicants will be notified.
The first payments are expected to include €4.662m for suckler farmers who invested in herd expansion between January 1, 2000 and October 19, 2003.
But the range of DED averages on which these entitlements will be based goes from €26 to €698 per hectare, averaging €273, said Irish Cattle and Sheepfarmers Association president Malcolm Thompson. He warned this method will result in some very big winners and losers.
Meanwhile, reserve applications are still being assessed, and may be successful in later tranches of payments.
About 11% of applications are still under query with the applicants. Unsuccessful applicants may appeal to the Single Payment Independent Appeals Committee.
Reserve entitlements must be used in full each year for five years, during which they may not be transferred other than by gift or inheritance.
Where a top-up increases the value of existing entitlements by more than 20%, all of those entitlements are regarded as having come from the National Reserve, and the "five year" rule applies.
* In the 2006 National Reserve, the only mandatory category will be farmers who inherited or otherwise obtained a holding free of charge or for a nominal sum from a farmer who retired or died before 16 May 2005, where the holding was leased out to a third party during the reference period.
New entrants will continue to be a non-mandatory category (people who started farming since December 31, 2002, or who commenced farming in 2002 but received no direct payments that year. Their total income could not exceed €40,000; off-farm income could not exceed €20,000. Farming qualifications are required).
Minister Coughlan also said, depending on available resources, she would consider catering for certain "hardship" cases who were unable to avail of any of the existing Single Payment measures.
