397 Mr. O'Leary asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Forestry the total number of farmers to whom cattle headage premia and sheep headage premia are payable in 1996; the total number of farmers who have been paid to date; and the total number of farmers who will be paid prior to 31 December 1996. [21679/96]

Details in respect of the 1996 cattle headage-beef cow headage and sheep headage schemes are outlined on the attached table.

Before payment can issue to any applicant under headage and premium schemes, other than the ewe premium and slaughter premium schemes and applicants with under 15 livestock units, a valid area aid application must be submitted. As part of the integrated administration and control system, required by the EU, Ireland was committed to developing a new area aid related land parcel identification system (LPIS) in 1996.

Given the increased levels of checks and controls associated with the new system it was inevitable that some delay in making payments, when measured against the 1995 performance, would arise. Notwithstanding this, so far in 1996 some 914,000 payments totalling over £666 million have been made to farmers under the various headage and premia schemes including the BSE compensation package. The position with regard to the 1996 schemes is that payments commenced on target and some 486,000 payments valued at £408 million have been made under these schemes to date. This compares most favourably with the payment positions at similar times in 1994 and previous years which were as follows:

398 Mr. Finucane asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Forestry when a REP scheme payment will be made to a person (details supplied) in County Limerick. [21691/96]

The person concerned has applied for his first year payment under the REP Scheme. His application will be processed shortly and, if in order, payment will issue as soon as possible thereafter.