Michael Comiskey (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Irish Natura and Hill Farmers' Association and the Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers' Association. My questions are mainly the same as those asked earlier. There are major problems; we all agree with that. I was closely involved with the commonage hill sheep farmers prior to joining the Seanad. I know there has been a major problem, going back as far as 1996 or 1997 when destocking was introduced and farmers were forced to take their sheep away. After that, many farmers did not put their sheep back on the land, and now we have a problem.

While a working group is important, and I would welcome its establishment, I do not believe we have the time at the moment. Perhaps in the long term we could put the working group in place, but we should allow farmers access to the various schemes, such as GLAS. They should be allowed to draw down from the basic payment scheme in the meantime while the working group is looking at what can be done.

I welcome the fact that under the green low-carbon agri-environment scheme there is one plan for each commonage. The consultants can examine that plan and draw up their commonage plan in that context. I believe there is movement such that farmers who may not want to share or put stock on the commonage can share that right with other farmers. It is important that farmers sit down and come to an agreement on that.

Going back to the 1960s and our local commonage, when we were children and when there was no Department involvement at all - I might have said this before - the farmers on the commonage sat down and agreed among themselves what the stocking rate should be. Everyone then had to agree to that. If a farmer was found to be out of line, he was penalised. The Department is involved now and it is up to the Department to enforce it. Some farmers will want to put hundreds of sheep on the commonage while, at the same time, other farmers would only put very small numbers of sheep on it.

Going back to Deputy Ó Cuív's point about sheep wandering the commonage and finding food wherever it is, research was carried out on the Teagasc farm in Mayo which showed that a sheep could walk up to 15 miles a day from morning until evening. Trackers were put on the sheep and it was shown that they have the ability to travel across a commonage and graze it in whatever way is best for the animals.