asked the Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries the number of farmers in County Cavan who have applied for headage payments under the disadvantaged areas scheme; and the total number of animals involved.

Applications were received from 964 herd owners in County Cavan. Details are not available of the total number of animals involved as the statistics kept relate not to the number of animals but to the livestock units eligible for payment.

What livestock units were eligible?

12,500 livestock units. The estimation is that it would mean about 15,000 animals.

Would the Minister agree that 12,000 animals in County Cavan mean that more of that county should be included for headage payments under the disadvantaged areas scheme?

Quite frankly, Deputy, I would not know, because of the exact nature of the criteria the EEC insist upon. I know County Cavan well and that there is a lot of bad land there, but without having all the facts and figures in front of me, I could not say whether we would be likely to succeed with such a case.

37.

asked the Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries the number of farmers in County Longford who applied for headage payments under the disadvantaged areas scheme; the number of animals involved; and the number of grants paid.

Eligible applications from County Longford numbered 835. To date 470 grants totalling £72,517 have been paid. Details are not available of the total number of animals involved as the statistics are kept on the basis of the numbers of livestock units and not of animals. Again if you want an approximation, it is 10,500 livestock units or approximately 12,500 animals.

Are the 10,500 units the number of applications or the number paid?

Calves over six months are part of a livestock unit but they are not a full livestock unit until they are two years old. That is the reason for the difference in the figures.

That was not my question. Does the number of livestock units relate to the number of applications made or to the number of grants paid?

The total number of cattle in the herds inspected is reckoned at about 10,500 livestock units or 12,500 animals.

That seems a small figure.

38.

asked the Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries if he will indicate in respect of applications from County Donegal for cattle headage payments under the disadvantaged areas scheme (a) the number of applications received and (b) the number of grants paid.

Eligible applications from County Donegal numbered 8,484. To date, 3,710 herd owners have been paid a total of £489,264. A further 1,100 grants amounting to approximately £145,000 will be paid in the very near future.

Would the Minister know the number of animals involved, because the entire county of Donegal is included for headage payments?

I am sorry I have not the figure for Donegal in my notes.

As there are more than 8,000 herd owners in the county, would the Minister not agree that there are probably more than 500,000 cattle involved?

I would say there is a large number of cattle involved there.

39.

asked the Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries if he will state in relation to each of the Aran Islands, County Galway (a) the number of applications received for cattle headage grants, (b) the number of applicants who have received payment of headage grants, and (c) the total amount of payments.

175 eligible applications were received from herd owners in the Aran Islands of which 101 came from Inishmor, 30 from Inish-maan and 44 from Inisheer. To date payments amounting to £3,815 have been made to 44 applicants in Inishmor, £1,198 to 23 applicants in Inishmaan and £1,334 to 37 applicants in Inisheer.

Incidentally I am told it is a very big job to extract these statistics because they are on a county basis. They have them on a county basis but they have to go through the whole lot to get them. I am told that a lot more payments could be made if this question had not to be answered.