Michael Comiskey (Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I welcome Ms Keena and Mr. Murphy and I thank Ms Keena for her presentation. I have a particular interest in this as a former chair of the IFA's hill committee from 2002 to 2005 when there was significant debate on this issue. I was involved from 1998 when destocking first took place. During this time some of these commonages have recovered to the degree that they are now undergrazed. In some cases some of the better commonages were abused by farmers and I have been lobbied by farmers on both sides of the argument in recent months since the debate started again. Much damage has been done and continues to be done on some commonages and work must be done on this.

I know of a particular commonage where each farmer has 30 acres. Some farmers will put between 300 and 500 sheep in the area for a short term during the summer months, but this destroys the commonage which is very unfair to other farmers who want to manage it. When I was young a management committee was in place among the farmers to manage the commonage and one of our favourite Sunday pastimes was when, once a month, we gathered up all the stock to check them out. If any farmer was found to be abusing stocking levels, he or she was penalised and fined. It was a great incentive. This will not work now because massive rows would take place among the farmers. We need somebody from Teagasc or the Department to discuss the best way to go forward because something must be done. We must encourage our young people to get involved in commonages which have been allowed to become overgrown and encourage them to get stock back on them. The older farmers will not be able to manage the stock. We must encourage the local breeding of stock to be established on the hill. This must be done by younger people with breeding stock. We all have a major job to do and much debate must take place.

With regard to rural development, we want to see species and wildlife returning. I am involved with local groups in the grouse project in north Leitrim and we would love to see it happening in more of the commonages. We all have work to do in the coming months to get this right once and for all so we do not find ourselves with another problem in a few years where some commonages will be overgrazed while others will not. We must establish a template now which will help farmers manage stock and help wildlife to get back on the commonage.