Mr. Paud Evans:

The land parcel identification system, LPIS, is a spatial database that is used by the Department to determine the areas in which payments are made. It covers all the direct aid schemes such as the single farm payment, the disadvantaged areas scheme and the grass and feed scheme. It is also utilised for making area-based payments under REPS and AEOS. The Deputy is quite right to say that it is an artificial creation. Essentially we have 1.1 million LPIS parcels on our system, and it is possible for one farmer to have every field as a separate LPIS whereas in another case the entire farm is one LPIS parcel. On average there are six separate fields in a LPIS parcel in Ireland. The situation for commonages is much more complicated because in Connemara and Donegal and elsewhere, and in my own area of Kerry, there are huge tracts of commonage, and if they pass a townland boundary it is necessary to create a new LPIS parcel. If a river flows through the middle, if there is a roadway or if forestry has been introduced, it is necessary to create a new LPIS parcel. It is possible to have more than one LPIS parcel for the same commonage. I note that the Senator also says it is possible to have two separate and distinct commonages and obviously there are no boundaries between them in most cases, so sheep can move. My understanding is that in Kerry sheep tend to stay on commonages in the same area. Traditionally they graze the same area. Maybe sheep in Galway are slightly different.