Jimmy Deenihan (Kerry North-West Limerick, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

My Department uses a variety of data sources to identify landowners and land users within areas proposed for designation, including the Property Registration Authority, the land parcel identification system used by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and information on forestry lands. When advertising six hen harrier special protection areas in November 2007, my Department identified approximately 4,000 individual land users within these SPAs. In order to include others who may also have had an interest in sites, a total of 4,439 notifications of designation were issued. It should be noted that not all these land users are landowners.

At the time of designation, my Department opened a voluntary incentivisation scheme to support farmers to improve habitat for the hen harrier and various other species that shared the same landscape. Applications were sought and a total of 376 hen harrier farm plans were approved until 2010, when the scheme had to be closed to new applicants owing to budgetary constraints. My Department continues to honour existing contracts, which were of five year duration.

My Department is in discussions with the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine concerning a range of measures for the protection or restoration of biodiversity under Ireland's next rural development plan. These include measures focused on Natura areas, that is, areas designated as special protection areas under the birds directive or special conservation areas under the habitats directive. It is envisaged that this approach will be implemented primarily through the proposed green low carbon agri-environment scheme, GLAS, under the new rural development programme. The draft programme is subject to a public consultation process, as announced by the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine.

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