Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Deputy Ó Cuív will have his opportunity to speak. Under the new CAP, a farmer with 42 ha of commonage can benefit by over €14,600 per annum if he or she participates under the single farm payment, ANC and GLAS schemes, and €16,600 if he or she benefits from GLAS plus. Such an applicant could satisfy the requirement of all schemes by grazing approximately 40 sheep.

The report of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine was published in July 2013. It states:

We recommend that the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht would consider the findings and recommendations of the report. We believe the evidence and contributions from both the witnesses and the members offer a valuable insight to designing pragmatic proposals for a workable policy.

The main issues identified within the report are as follows: optimum stocking rates tailored for individual commonages, to which we have responded; the effects of dormancy on preparing a management plan, to which we have also responded; collective arrangements, co-ownership and the possible impact of imposing collective responsibility, as opposed to a co-operative approach; burning and the rules pertaining, to allow for responsible burning as part of a commonage upland vegetation management plan; and a recommendation for output-driven models as an approach to achieving the objectives of commonage framework plans.

Much progress has been made since the publication of the report. As I announced last July, the new agri-environment scheme, GLAS, with funding of €1.45 billion over the lifetime of the rural development programme, will provide for a maximum payment of €5,000 for up to 50,000 farmers. The targeted structure of the scheme has been refined following public consultation. The preservation and restoration of commonages and the continuation of suitable and environmentally friendly farming practices on the hills are key objectives under the new GLAS scheme. In recognition of the importance of commonages, hill farmers will get priority access to GLAS. In particular, the requirement for 80% of active farmers to participate in collective action on commonage has been replaced by a 50% rate, applying to either 50% of active farmers or 50% of the total commonage land area. I established the independently chaired commonage implementation committee to address issues that arise in practice, and it is working actively.

The annual rate of €120 per hectare will apply for the GLAS actions applicable on commonages.

This is a substantial increase on the €75 rate available under the AEOS. There is no imposition of minimum or maximum stocking densities and smaller commonages of less than ten hectares in size will not be subject to any minimum participation requirement. On commonages of that size farmers can enter GLAS in their own right. The minimum 50% participation requirement is achievable and workable. However, where real difficulties are being encountered, the farmers concerned can make a case to the commonage implementation committee for entry to the scheme. If it is clear that the farmer or farmers concerned have made every effort to meet the requirement but have failed through no fault of their own, they will not be locked out of GLAS.

Some farmers have stated to me they cannot all work with the same planner, that they have different planners and would like to be able to apply using their own. That is acceptable as long as they comply with a single commonage GLAS plan submitted by one planner. If other planners are involved, that is fine as long as they ensure the farmers farm in a manner consistent with the GLAS plan for the commonage. This has been worked out through discussion and negotiation to try to be helpful on a workable basis.

The joint committee recommended that my Department avoid an unnecessarily prescriptive approach and that the minimum and maximum figures be used for guidance rather than being mandatory. The National Parks and Wildlife Service, working in conjunction with my Department, undertook an exercise which resulted in a grazing plan for each commonage. There was essentially a minimum and a maximum stocking density for each commonage. However, while these figures will be made available to commonage planners, it will be on the basis that they are essentially a guide. This is precisely in line with the joint committee's recommendation. The planner will have flexibility to put forward alternative figures if they can be supported on environmental grounds. The choice of GLAS actions included in the plan is a matter for the planner and the commonage farmers, but the actions must be such that they deliver an environmental improvement and they must be above the pillar 1 baseline which is a requirement of the new regulations. The scheme must be credible to the European Commission and shown to deliver clear environmental benefits.

I urge all commonage farmers to look closely at the options open to them. Active farmers on commonages who participate in the GLAS scheme, as well as the basic payment scheme and the areas of natural constraints scheme, can benefit from a payment of over €360 per hectare of commonage land up to 34 hectares. This is a significant reward for farming such land. In order to make farmers fully aware of the options open to them, my Department has arranged for information meetings to be held this week and next week in areas with significant tracts of commonage land, from County Donegal to west Cork and from County Wicklow to County Louth. I want farmers to actively participate in order that together we will work through any difficulty that there might be to ensure farmers believe the schemes we will be opening in the next few are workable, practical and reflect the realities on the ground on farms and in commonage areas.

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