Mr. Liam O'Keeffe:

Deputy Ó Cuív asked about the time period of the scheme. This could be looked at. There will be an issue with any length of time whether it is five, ten or 15 years. Initially there will be a value on the land but as a farmer goes into a scheme for ten or 15 years and in the latter half of the time period, there will be value on the land again for farmers and we will be back to where we were initially. The banks will say there are only so many years remaining.

In our view the scheme will have to be linked to an annual payment. One of our suggestions would be that it would be part of the ANC, the areas of natural conservation. Seeing as the hen harrier is a naturally occurring wild bird, if it was linked to an ANC annual payment to farmers then from the point of view of the banks that would put value back on the land versus going with a scheme that is of an indeterminate length of time and will start running out. Banks will not want to hear about the value of a farmer's land.

Deputy Ó Cuív made a point about forestry and wind farm development. Initially, the documentation received by farmers on their designation listed three ways of claiming money, including a top-up REPS payment and the hen harrier scheme, but also a farm compensation scheme. This was to compensate the farmer for developments that could not be carried out on the land because of its designation. Forestry or wind farm is a development from what a farmer was doing with the land previously. We do not know what it covered in applications or how much was paid out, but the documentation states it was for developments of the farm.