Brian Ó Domhnaill (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Creidim go bhfuil an cruinniú seo, agus an tsraith cruinnithe atá á reachtáil ag an gcoiste i dtaca leis an gceist seo, tábhachtach. These meetings are important, as has been said by many speakers. This is a burning issue, particularly so prior to Christmas when it was leaked that a lot of the work had been done, that agreement had been reached within the Department and the NPWS and that letters were to issue to farmers. I know this was met with a gust from the farming organisations, farmers and the committee. While I am not sure if the letters that were due to issue were printed, I would like to have some understanding of what exactly was happening at the time. I have great respect for the Department and the NPWS which do excellent work in our national parks, SACs and SPAs. Nonetheless, I would like to find out who was driving the agenda. The presentations have outlined the needs highlighted concerning the under-grazing of commonages and it was said, possibly by Mr. Evans, that consultation had taken place with farmers. I am not aware of consultations with farmers with commonage lands in my constituency and would like to clarify which farmers were consulted on this issue. I know the farming organisations issued many statements in November and early December stating they had not been fully consulted; therefore, some clarification would be in order.

On the overall approach adopted by the Department and in the policy document, Food Harvest 2020, to which we all subscribe and which feeds into the issue of tackling the world food crisis which is very evident in the scientific reports, there is a need to balance the ecology against the funding and transfers we receive from the European taxpayer every year under the Common Agricultural Policy. There is a need to protect the environment, including commonage lands, flora and fauna. Balanced with this, however, there is a need to allow farmers living in these areas to engage in as active a farming enterprise as they can.

In Donegal, for example, there were very severe gorse fires across the county in May 2011. I was one of the volunteers who helped to put out the gorse fires and saw at first-hand the dangers posed to the local community. Some houses were almost lost. If one spoke to any of the farmers at the time, there was widespread acceptance that the difficulty had been caused by under-grazing on the hills and that the reason for this under-grazing was related to the regulations and stipulations imposed by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and the NPWS. To be fair to him, the then Minister of State, the late Deputy Shane McEntee, visited County Donegal shortly after the fires had started. I remember speaking to him and know that he acknowledged there was an issue that needed to be addressed in regard to under-grazing on the hills and-or the need to provide for controlled burning.

I do not subscribe to the view that the farmer is totally to blame for under-grazing. Farmers were farming in restricted circumstances and not in a position to go into certain areas or increase their stocking rates because they were highly dependent on the commonage lands available to them.

A significant balance can be struck here. Looking at commonages in my county, the proposals introduced by the Department, which received much media attention, are totally unworkable. One cannot ask 20 or 30 commonage owners to subscribe to an arrangement whereby there may be ten out of the 30 who are active. They may or may not be on the best of terms with each other but they will be asked to come together, agree a stocking rate with the minimum and maximum set by the Department and obtain the services of a consultant or REPS planner to carry out the detailed work that must be undertaken. It is totally unworkable. There is a need to engage in a policy in this area that may be more comprehensive than the commonage framework plans, but one needs to start at the bottom. If one does not have the buy-in at the bottom, the protectors of the land or the farmers will not subscribe to it and be able to implement it in a practical way. It is all about practicalities. In theory, it sounds great to bring in a new plan whereby one has 20 farmers and box-ticking. It looks fine on paper but in reality, it just will not work on the ground. That is my experience as a sheep farmer and one who meets farmers every day of the week. I attended public meetings on this issue in Donegal. It was lunacy, because farmers who were neighbours but were not speaking to each other were asked to sit and work out a plan. I am not sure where the plan came from or who was drawing it up but we might get that clarification today.

The issue of compensation under Pillar 2 has been talked about by farming organisations and people within the Department to satisfy those on marginal land or land that cannot be farmed as actively as other land. I do not buy into that. In respect of the single farm payment and the manner in which it is distributed, the European Commission has looked at it and come up with its own suggestions. The Commission's suggestions would solve some of the problems identified here. If one is going to compensate simply because one is on a commonage, why not use the Commission model under Pillar 1 and have a more even spread of the single farm payment? Would that not achieve the same objective in terms of allowing farmers to raise their stocking rates in a managed way and supporting those who are active through the single farm payment model? We could look to Pillar 2 for a proper environmental scheme that could be available to all farmers across the country instead of restricting it to certain areas. We do not know yet what is going to be in Pillar 2. The budget has not been agreed, but perhaps that is a debate for another day.

This committee should play a constructive role, working with the Department and the NPWS to bring about a policy that is as inclusive and acceptable as possible to farmers farming on commonage lands. That may mean bringing farmers before the committee. I know some of the representative bodies are coming in here. Perhaps the committee should visit commonages and look at the issue on the ground. Both presentations today were extremely helpful. I hope the committee can play a role in this policy.

I have a final question for Mr. Smyth concerning the timeframe. I know it was outlined in the presentation that it is urgent. Who is driving the urgency? What timeframe are we looking at? Is it months or a year? Does he agree that the consultation thus far has been adequate?