merrion street

The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Simon Coveney TD, today announced that allocations to successful applicants under the 2011 National Reserve have now commenced.

The Minister recalled that, following discussions with the Single Payment Advisory Committee comprising representative from the Farm Bodies, Teagasc and officials from his Department, it was agreed that where the sum of allocations to be made to successful applicants is greater than the overall amount available in the National Reserve a linear reduction would have to be applied to all allocations. The Minister pointed out that effectively the resources available in the National Reserve each year is solely dependent on the amount accruing from the non-use of entitlements which are allocated annually to the Reserve.

The estimated sum available in the Reserve for 2011 following the transfer of unused entitlements that expired in 2011 is €1.3m. The estimated cost of the 2011 Reserve allocations to successful applicants is €1.4m. In order to stay within the limit of available funds his Department has had to apply a reduction of 10% to National Reserve allocations to successful applicants. This will reduce the overall cost of the 2011 National Reserve to €1.26m.giving an average allocation of €3,060 to successful applicants who are mainly young trained farmers.