Eamon Scanlon (Sligo-Leitrim, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I want to voice the concerns of 33 landowners who farm the Killerry Mountain on the Sligo-Leitrim border and to request an urgent investigation into the current position as to why the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine is only partially paying basic payment scheme, BPS, and areas of natural constraints, ANC, payments to these farmers. There are up to 1,000 ha of commonage on the mountain in which 33 farmers have shares. These landowners are being penalised following a major gorse fire which started on 3 May last year. It took 32 hours to quell the fire which spread over 4,000 ha of outstanding beauty. Four fire brigades from Sligo and two from Leitrim dealt with the fire, assisted by the Coast Guard as well as fire officers from Donegal and local farmers who alerted the fire services in the first place. The commonage shareholders also made every effort to get the fire extinguished.

Payments for 2017 were withheld from the farmers until Christmas week. Most of them received very little with some losing out between €4,000 and €10,000. I first contacted the Minister on this issue in November 2017. I did not receive an acknowledgement from his office at the time. Unfortunately, a substantive response from the Minister is still pending. Information was obtained through individual representations to the Department on behalf of the farmers regarding their payments.

In early December, I was advised by the Department that it actively investigates incidents of illegal burning using satellite imagery. Land burned between the period of 1 March and 31 August of any given year is not eligible for payment under the BPS. The Department informed me that to qualify for payment under the BPS, an application must have an eligible hectare of land in respect of each entitlement held. It also stated that, with respect to the farmers in Killerry Mountain, the lands in their BPS applications had been identified as having been burned outside the permitted timeframe and, accordingly, such lands would not be eligible for the purpose of the BPS payment which has created an overclaim on the BPS applications.

These farmers have been written to by the Department outlining the current position with regard to their BPS applications and setting out the options available to them on the overclaim parts, including the right to seek a review. The correspondence stated where land has been burned that is not suitable for agricultural activities, such as grazing or cultivation, it is, therefore, not eligible. It was apparent during the closed season for burning that there was widespread burning vegetation, according to the Department. It confirmed by press release on 17 May that it was investigating the illegal burning of lands. It also stated farmers who included illegally burned land in their 2017 BPS applications should remove the land, and that inclusion of same would result in reduced payments and penalties under the scheme.

All of the farmers, individually and collectively, do not accept this and are seeking an urgent appeal. If this decision is not overturned, it could affect the farmers' payments for three to four years until the grass regrows. That is not acceptable. What is the current status of the investigation? Will the Minister provide the House and the landowners with an update?

There is much access to the mountain for walkers and campers, making it difficult to pinpoint exactly how the fire started. In excess of 60 gorse fires occurred between March and May of last year, according to the Irish Wildlife Trust. It was unseasonably warm and dry in the region in question during that particular time. To be honest, it was the only bit of summer we got. It is completely unfair to penalise the farmers in question or to assume they had any part in starting the gorse fires.

The Sligo Way is a waymarked long-distance walking route which starts at Lough Talt on the Sligo-Mayo border, continues along the line of the Ox Mountains for approximately 80 km, and ends at Dromahair, County Leitrim. Some of the property traversed by the Sligo Way is private property. Access is available by kind permission of all the landowners and farmers on the route. Persons entering by permission do so with the consent of the landowners. No matter how often they enter or in what numbers, they do not so as of right. Up to 60 people a day could access this walkway with 5 km of it spanning across the commonage land in question. After the fire, the Minister for Rural and Community Development, Deputy Ring, gave a €54,000 grant to repair some of the stands along the walkway. In May 2017, the Sligo Camino attracted 600 walkers from 25 counties to walk the 25 km route.

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