Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

This issue was first brought to my attention by the INHFA and their Donegal chairman, Mr. John McConway, and the concern that turbary as scored as part of the wider commonage would have a disproportionate impact. Having taken on board that concern, there was engagement with the Department. The direction agreed after that was that the turbary would be extracted from the wider commonage and scored separately. My team in the Department then developed a protocol working with the co-operation project teams. They agreed and implemented a 100 m buffer coming out of that, but not in all circumstances because where there is a natural break, the 100 m buffer does not apply. The co-operation teams went ahead on the basis of that and have scored all the commonages on the basis of that.

This buffer issue was brought to my attention for the first time again in the past ten days or so. As a result of that I have now engaged with my Department and am continuing to engage on the potential impact of that, bearing in mind that the scoring has already been done by co-operation project teams over the course of last summer and it is only being brought to my attention at this stage by any representative organisation and the INHFA in raising it with me. I understand the concern about this. This is why I am looking at it and drilling down into it. Working with my team, we will continue to do that. I do not have a timeline on this. Obviously we have made the decision on the interim payment of €4,000 and €5,000 to everyone. I will be using that space now to engage further with the team to conclude and make sure all the ACRES work is finished, and to look at that particular issue.

See this speech in context