Mr. Michael Cronin:

I will answer Deputy Ferris's last question first, with regard to communication with the Department. We are in the middle of discussions and we will speak to the Department shortly. We have had discussions with the Minister for the Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht and the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine.

What we are hearing so far is that the GLAS payment scheme is a payment. In my view, the €2,000 extra payment if a farmer is in a hen harrier designated region is not adequate.

The second response is that there is a threat response plan in action at the moment and that process is being worked through as to how forestry is affecting the hen harrier habitats. However, our issue is that this is taking a long time. As mentioned by Deputy Ó Cuív, it has been in place for a number of years. A survey is being carried out. There will be further debate in October followed by a period of consultation. We are concerned that this could take a number of years and at the end of that we could still be back here in three years' time dealing with the same issue. That is our response on what we are hearing from Departments. We have further work to do and we will be working with the Department as we move forward.

I will ask Mr. Fitzgerald to deal with Deputy Ó Cuív's point about the GLAS payment.