Mon, 22nd July: Walsh announces 2003 EWE premium dates and criteria for the allocation of reserve quota

7/22/2002 -

The Minister for Agriculture and Food, Mr Joe Walsh TD, today announced that applications for the 2003 ewe premium should be submitted to his Department between 4 December 2002 and 3 January 2003. The retention period, during which producers must keep sheep in order to qualify for the premium, will therefore operate from 4 January 2003 to 13 April 2003.

The Minister also announced the arrangements to apply to the distribution of the Ewe Premium Quota rights from the National Reserve. The quantity of rights available from the National Reserve for 2003 is estimated at almost 500,000 units.

Mr. Walsh said that, in view of the fact that there was a substantial quantity of quota available, it was unnecessary to impose restrictive criteria for the allocation of the reserve and that quota will be allocated to two broad categories. Producers with less than 20 livestock units will be given priority access to the quota with the balance of the reserve being allocated to farmers with more than 20 livestock units.

The Minister said that these decisions were taken following consultation with the Ewe Premium Quota Review Group, an advisory group of representatives from the sheep sector.

The Minister also announced that application for quota rights from the National Reserve must be submitted by 30 August 2002. Application forms for reserve quota will be available shortly at all local offices of the Department as well as from Quota Section, Michael Davitt House, Castlebar, Co Mayo.