Mr. Colm O'Donnell:

I will deal with Deputy Ferris's question and Mr. Joyce can take the final one. The Deputy mentioned destocking of the land in 1998. I was one of those farmers who had to comply with a 30% compulsory cull of my flock of sheep. I had to take 100 ewes from the flock and have them slaughtered above in Ballyhaunis, and I was badly paid for them at the time. When the commonage framework plans were published 18 months later, I was told that my hill did not require any destocking - that it required zero destocking. I have since farmed that area with my hands held tight behind my back. It was a flawed policy between the Department of Agriculture and Food and the Department of the Environment and Local Government at the time. They did not take into account the carrying capacity of the land and the sustainability levels. If one forgets the sins of the past, one is bound to repeat them. The Deputy talks about restocking the hills, but if the commonage management plan goes ahead based on the minimum and maximum figures indicative of the number of sheep required, it will mean massive destocking of the stable flocks across those mountain areas. Farmers who have farmed those areas in the Deputy's county and across the country, who have the active flocks and who kept those hills in pristine condition, now face massive destocking as a result of what is proposed in the commonage management plan.

That is the position and it really needs to be looked at. The land eligibility is one issue but we need an urgent meeting to solve this.

In the basic payments scheme terms and conditions, the Department of agriculture classes this land as environmentally sensitive grassland. The Department confirmed to us at a meeting last week that heather always was and always will be considered permanent grassland. If the land that we farm is environmentally sensitive grassland, and greening is 30% of the existing single farm payment - the taxpayer in Europe sees that as being very important - then the lands are eligible for greening. Surely to God we cannot say they are eligible for greening but they are not eligible for the basic payments scheme? There has to be some cohesion here. We must establish the definition of sufficient agricultural activity. The basic farm payment terms and conditions say there must be evidence of sufficient agricultural activity being conducted throughout the parcel, otherwise unused parts of the parcel may be found ineligible. This is where we are at.