121 Mr. Enright asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Rural Development the total number of applications received by his Department under the farm retirement scheme; under the old scheme; under the new scheme introduced on 27 November 2000; the number of cases on which queries were raised by his Department under each of the schemes; the number of cases approved by his Department under both schemes; the number of refusals for payment under the scheme; the reason for these refusals; the number of cases in each instance which were the subject of an appeal in his Department; the number of applications for payments which have been referred to the Ombudsman for a decision; the number of cases on which the Ombudsman reversed the original decision of the Department; the average length of time it takes from lodging the application to the applicant receiving the pension; the number of pensions which are suspended; the reasons therefor; the waiting time in having extensions of leases approved; the number of suspensions of such pensions while waiting approval; if he will furnish replies to these questions on a county by county basis; if he plans to make applications for the farm retirement scheme more user friendly; and if he will endeavour to simplify the scheme. [24797/01]

The number of applications that my Department has received under the two early retirement schemes is set out in the first table below. That table also shows the numbers approved and the numbers refused.

The most common reasons for refusing applications are as follows:

(i) the retiring farmer did not qualify under the age criteria;

(ii) the transferee did not qualify under the age criteria;

(iii) title to the pension lands, or, in the previous scheme, to the enlargement lands, was not established;

(iv) incomplete or invalid documentation was submitted.

The second table below contains information on the number of cases which were appealed to my Department and also those which were appealed to the Ombudsman, together with the number in which the Ombudsman recommended that my Department change its decisions.

The third table shows the number of cases in each scheme in which queries were raised, and the number in which pensions have been suspended. It is not possible to quantify the number of queries raised under the old scheme, but the majority of applications involved a significant amount of interaction between the Department and the applicant or their agent. It was for this reason that the onus in the new scheme is on both the applicant and their agent to ensure that the application is in order before submitting it to the Department for decision.

122 Mr. Enright asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Rural Development when a pension under the scheme of early retirement from farming will be restored to a person (details supplied) in County Offaly. [24798/01]

It was necessary to suspend payment of the early retirement pension to the person named from July 2001 because legal documentation relating to the renewal of a lease had not been received. The required documentation has now been received and monthly payments will resume at the end of November, with arrears payable from 1 July 2001.