Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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We have to look at that. Regarding land use and management, we need to have a plan in place for the next round of the Common Agricultural Policy, CAP, to capture that money. In my constituency office, I deal on an ongoing basis with farmers whose payments are cut because they overdeclared for a parcel of land that in the minds of those in the Department was not in active farming. It was not in grassland. When the satellite passed over and took a picture of the land, there was an area of scrub so the Department sought to exclude that and, therefore, reduce the area for which the farmer claimed. This has a knock-on effect on the farmer's payment because he or she is not regarded as actively farming the land. In truth, the area that has perhaps gone wild and is not grazeable is of greater benefit in terms of biodiversity and carbon capture in the long run. We have a lot to do in terms of that because we are forcing an unnecessary clearing of that land whereas farmers seem to be happy enough with. Perhaps it is poor land in the first instance where not much grass can be grown. If something else grows on it, so be it.