2652. Deputy Pa Daly asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine to provide a breakdown of the number of applications received for the fuel income support scheme; the number that are awaiting determination; the number that have been approved; the number that have been refused; broken down by county, in tabular form. [59728/26]

The Fuel Income Support Scheme was introduced as a targeted income support to assist farmers and agricultural/forestry contractors facing unprecedented increases in fuel costs.

The table below sets out the total number of applicants under the scheme broken down by county and the total number of payments to date (September 1st). The figures represent both farmer and contractor applications.

Over 3,800 applicants are not eligible to receive payment as their claim was less than 1,200 litres and hence are below the minimum threshold for payment (€100).

Incomplete payments are due to a number of issues. For certain cases my Department is waiting on further information from applicants to allow them to be set-up on payment systems or a request has been made for further evidence, for example fuel receipts. As information is supplied cases are being cleared and payments will continue to be made on a weekly basis. There are also a number of cases where my Department has received information and is in the process of finalising payments.