Seán Kyne (Galway West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for the reply. I appreciate that the issue of commonages is somewhat of a minefield and very complex. I acknowledge the threat of fines against the State and that the Government has appealed those. Hopefully there will be a positive result from the Commission.

Although I am not a member of the committee, I raised this issue with departmental officials at the Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and Marine last week. It relates to the consequence of reducing forage areas. Two of the commonages I have been dealing with are not in my constituency but in the neighbouring constituency in south Galway. In simple terms, if following inspection the Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine inspectors reduce the forage area in the farm, it means they are stating that the commonage is able to hold less stock. Therefore less stock will graze, thus exacerbating the problem of undergrazing. This could lead to more scrub and more areas not being grazed under commonages which could have implications down the line under the birds and habitats directives because these areas are supposed to be kept in proper habitat status.

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