Mr. Joe Condon:

I will put forward a proposal, with the committee's support, for a motion to exclude commonage from the draft recommendations and to extend the fencing of watercourses from bovines to all farms. The justification for this is that commonage is governed by a sustainable stocking rate. It is legally prescribed by the State under commonage framework plans. A sustainable stocking rate is already legally prescribed on these lands, which would justify excluding them. The stocking rate is quite low. I could go into exactly what it is, but in most cases it is one ewe per hectare. If that was transposed to bovines, it would be one bovine per 6 or 7 ha. Stocking rates in these areas are very low, especially in maturer areas. It would be an excessive administrative burden in that situation and there would possibly be regulatory capture in that those farmers would be punished by excessive regulation.

In the case of the Burren, cattle had to be put back onto it again to restore the habitat to a good environmental condition. Losing animals, including cattle, from these areas would be extremely detrimental to those areas. The cost associated with having to fence those areas would be prohibitive. Mr. O'Donnell will comment now as similar types of scenarios will arise in Donegal.