Andrew Doyle (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I apologise as I was unavoidably held up this morning and thank Deputy Heydon for moving the motion. I thank all my colleagues on the committee for the preparation of the report. We published this report on 18 July 2013 and had seven meetings. The rationale behind the report was on foot of those draft guidelines published by the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht. To the credit of the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine and others, they did not then issue letters at the time. We said it was very important that we drew up some sort of framework on how best to manage commonages.

First, if one wants to do a commonages plan and if one wants to pay people for doing it, its objectives should be to improve the environmental condition of the commonage beyond what the new CAP has described as good agricultural and environmental conditions. We must draw a distinction between what is first off required under the single farm payments scheme and what it is. In the report, we built in two different levels. Within the rural development programme, there are two different levels which I will address later.

We met on seven occasions. The main issues identified were optimum stocking rates tailored for individual commonages, which means that one size does not fit all; the effects of dormancy on preparing a management plan, which is that the potential of not having the ability to get enough people to sign up to an agreement that could make a plan effective to achieve its output and aims; and collective arrangements and co-ownership and the possible impact of imposing collective responsibility as opposed to a co-operative approach, an issue that has been worked on hard by Department officials. I attended an information meeting in Glendalough last night attended by some 30 people. The meeting was attended by senior principal officers and seven or eight Department officials. They gave a very full and comprehensive outline and explanation, answered many questions and stayed back until everybody was happy that their concerns were listened to and explanations were given. It was positive. Anyone who was there will say it. People have concerns but they were mainly explained. One issue that was raised many times in respect of Wicklow was burning and the burning rules. A gentleman at the meeting manages some of the grouse areas. They said that they had one last week in the past four years when they could effectively burn within the prescribed period. The Department officials at least seemed very anxious and positive towards extending the burning time period. We need to engage with the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht to get that achieved.

The other issue was output-driven models. I will go through the recommendations of the report. There are a couple of key points and queries that came from the meeting last night. We said that the term "commonage" needs to be defined. Much of my locality in the Wicklow uplands is national parkland. People graze on what is known as old collops and have rights attached but they are not part of their folio. They have rights to graze but there are limits on them so some people can only graze up to a maximum level anyway. It has worked fairly well as long as there were enough people active and therein lies an issue that might need to addressed. It relates to people having a maximum number they graze yet if there are not enough of the other people who are active, they cannot get to the overall minimum numbers required by 2018.

In recommendation five, we said that commonages should be managed by the mechanism of output-driven schemes which maximise the specialised knowledge of those who own the commonages. GLAS reflects that particular recommendation in so far as it is an output-driven scheme. The next recommendation is that a one-size-fits-all approach should be avoided and that each scheme should be based on and address the unique characteristics of each individual commonage. From what I gathered from last night, that is exactly what will happen. No maximum is set until the management plan is agreed. The minimum is the minimum of one ewe per 1.5 hectares. After that, there will be each ewe equivalents for each individual farmer who has until the end of 2015 to increase their minimum stocking rate.

In respect of Deputy Ó Cuív's comments, I live in an area where many farmers farm with an upland reach. They have a lot of sheep they keep on commonage. They breed them for breeding sale. They keep many more sheep than they would ever use for replacements and store male sheep, which is mainly the other side to it, are secondary in many ways. They are very important but they do not breed animals as terminal to fatten them. More and more farmers do so nowadays.

It has been a problem since the outbreak of foot and mouth disease when we were not allowed to sell sheep directly into Northern Ireland. We would have had it in the breeding season at this time of year. Blessington, Baltinglass, Carnew and others had them. There were 10,000 sheep in a sale, most of which were breeding stock. There is a special show sale in Blessington tomorrow. The sheep for sale are breeding stock. There will also be store lambs.

Buyers from the Cooley Mountains, the midlands and elsewhere come to Wicklow. It is the same in the west. One has to understand that it is not the same as having a lowland flock where breeding replacements are bred in the same way as replacements in a dairy herd, and the rest of the product is for fattening. It is a different type of sheep farming and people who do not know about sheep farming do not understand that.

Deputy McNamara referred to Burren life. It is the second level. The locally led environmental schemes are an addition to this and recognise the value of the Burren, in fairness to the Department and Minister, and there is an extension of that initiative. We all hope places will qualify. The bar is set a little bit higher in those sorts of schemes. People in the Burren say species rich grassland is their kilo of beef. Wicklow uplands council has healthy managed vegetation in the uplands. That is the output for which people are paid to achieve. Payment is given to those who own the land and they are allowed to set the plan. That was the key message from the Burren. Locally led environmental schemes will achieve that. They are really welcome.

We have discussed GLAS. There is a requirement for 50% of farmers to agree, but if that cannot be achieved the implementation committee can be contacted for a consideration and recommendation. The point was made that if only one farmer remains on commonage and cannot qualify for GLAS because more than one farmer must be involved, he or she can send his or her submission to the implementation committee and, more than likely, it would be approved for the scheme.

We have a particular issue with deer in Wicklow, of which the Minister is well aware. Part of the problem is that the vegetation on the hills has become overgrown, too stemmy and is no longer attractive, and as a result the deer have become cute and lazy. They are moving to lower ground and competing on lowland domestic inside ground for grass and vegetation. People in the National Parks and Wildlife Service need to be absolutely convinced of the problem.

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