Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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I want to discuss the implication of the new good agricultural and environmental condition of land rules, GAEC 2. Farmers in many parts of County Kerry will be affected. Farmers have been advised that they must recognise these new rules and regulations as part of applying for their basic income support scheme, BISS, payments and other CAP payments on 15 May, which is tomorrow. That is the first issue I want to raise concern about. There has been so little time. The letters only came out last week. There are concerns about implications for opening new drains and shallow ploughing. What implications will it have for planning permission in the future? I want to ask this clearly and I want an answer: can people still cut turf on the boglands that they have to keep for themselves as they traditionally done? For more than 200 years we have been cutting turf on our farm to keep ourselves warm. Why is it that farmers are the only ones always being targeted or challenged about emissions? Why is it that the farmers in the poorest land areas of the country, such as much of Kerry, are under scrutiny? Why was this action not carried out in a more transparent way? There were no proper discussions in this Chamber.

Members and farmers were not made aware until about two months ago. This was agreed more than three years ago by the then-Minister, Department officials, IFA and other farming organisations. Maps have been issued to farmers. Many are raising concerns in respect of the correctness of what appeared to be on the very old maps. However, farmers have been advised that an appeal system will become available in due course. In the meantime, farmers will have to wait to be paid. Many have not received their 2024 ACRES payments. It has to be remembered up here in Dublin and in Dáil Éireann that farmers in rural Ireland and indeed, in Kerry, are the backbone of rural communities and the backbone of the country. They have been and are still capable of producing top class beef and lamb from poor, fragmented farm holdings across all of south and east Kerry from Gneeveguilla, Rathmore through Kilgarvan back into Kenmare and down both sides of the Kenmare river, through Tuosist and back to Lauragh, through Blackwater, Glencar, Sneem, Caherdaniel and Cahersiveen. Indeed, the marts of Cahersiveen, Kenmare, Gortatlea and Castleisland town are testament to the number of weanlings and lamb that have been reared off the very small pockets of marginal, arable land in between rocks and bogs. . Dairy farmers in east Kerry from Kilcummin to Barraduff, Rathmore, Gneeveguilla, Scartaglin, Cordal, Brosna and Knocknagashel supply great quantities of milk from heavy and marginal-type land. These are great farmers who improve their lands, actions and methods to make the most out of what they have. Why do they not leave these farmers alone? Why hassle these grand people? What about the millions of jets flying overhead? What about the spaceships going into space? What about the bombs in Ukraine and Gaza over the past number of years? The letters have gone out to the owners of the poorest type of land in Ireland. Ireland is one of the smallest agricultural countries in the world. If we all walked off this island, it would only mean a reduction of 0.13% in the worldwide context of emissions. It will not change the climate or the weather either.

Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy for the opportunity to provide an update on an important issue. The Deputy is right; there is a lot of concern among farmers around GAEC 2. I am happy to have the opportunity to reassure people that the concerns that are there are misplaced for a variety of reasons. I can give the background to GAEC 2. It is a mandatory condition for the payment of BISS. That is a single farm payment where the application deadline is this week, as the Deputy outlined.

EU regulations require all member states to have a standard in place from the start of this year. Up to this point, Ireland took the maximum flexibility allowed to delay the introduction of the standard until 2025. Many other member states introduced it in 2023, when we as a country signed up to this and said we would do it.

A further deferral for 2025 was sought by Ireland, asking the European Commission for additional time. We received a very clear response from the Commission that no further deferral would be approved. If I did not introduce this standard in 2025, Ireland would be in serious breach of the EU regulations governing CAP strategic plans. This would have lead to significant fines that would have directly impacted the budget I have to support the very farmers the Deputy talked about all over Kerry. I could not let that happen. I could not let a fine come in that would have taken away money that I want to spend on supporting our farmers instead.

The standard that has been introduced for 2025 provides a baseline protection for carbon-rich soils, while allowing agricultural activity to continue. That is an important point. Farmers' day-to-day activity in Kerry will not change even if their land parcel is in GAEC 2. They can continue to farm as they have always done in the past.

In Ireland, our grass-based system already provides considerable protection for such soils and they are also protected by existing national planning provisions, for example on drainage. As I said, agricultural activity can continue. For example, ploughing, reseeding and maintenance of existing drains is all still allowed.

New drainage is also possible in line with the existing national provisions, which have been in place for many years. Therefore, the introduction of this standard is expected to have minimal impact on farmers’ day-to-day operations.

Around a quarter of farmers - 35,000 of them, who account for approximately 540,000 ha of peat soils - will have some land that is subject to the GAEC 2 element. In the main, these farmers will not need to take any new actions to comply with the standard. GAEC 2 was subject to final approval by the European Commission and was adopted on 30 April 2025. I could not write to farmers with the maps and exact detail until our proposal was approved by the European Commission. The Commission accepted what was a very significant change from our perspective in what we wanted so we got measures put in place to allow farmers to continue to farm as they do.

The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine has consulted relevant stakeholders, including farm bodies and environmental NGOs, on a proposed standard. We have chosen to use a clear, parcel-based approach based on well understood maps as a fair way to ensure we get the required protection in place and farmers have no uncertainty as to the requirements or where they apply. It is in all of our interests that farmers have certainty.

Once approval of the standard was received from the Commission, my Department published a technical note with detailed information on the standard. It was released to the media in order that the information could be provided in the Irish Farmers' Journal, Agrilandand everywhere else. The Department has also provided direct information to farm advisory services and held meetings with the public and private advisory services to ensure the requirements are fully understood.

A detailed map layer has been available on the application system for all farmers to review since before BISS applications opened. My Department has written to every farmer who has at least one parcel identified as GAEC 2, with a map and further information on the requirements. Farmers have been receiving these letters since last week, but I still encourage all farmers to check the map on the system and engage with their farm advisory service advisers. Department officials continue to attend local meetings on this issue to help explain the conditionality requirements to farmers and to reassure them there is no need for the concerns raised by the Deputy. The key point that I wish to reiterate is that for the vast majority of farmers, this will have no impact on their day-to-day operations.

I understand the concerns raised around the timing but my Department is engaging directly with farmers and advisory services. There was no opportunity to further delay the introduction of GAEC 2. It was not legally possible to delay its introduction and failure to implement the standard would result in significant financial penalties, which I as Minister could not stand over.

Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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I thank the Minister for his response. I ask him to give me a clear understanding as to whether farmers who have lands in Lyracrumpane, Glencar, Cahirsiveen, Kilcummin, Gneevgullia, Scartaglin and all those places can cut turf where they have parcels of peat? That is a straight question and I want a straight answer to it.

Farmers are very concerned about the time it will take to get their payments and have this sorted out and gone through properly because they doubt the correctness of some of the maps that some of them have received. They need time for that. If farmers need an extension of time until the end of the month to get their applications in, so be it. I ask the Minister to ensure no one is left out or has an application deemed incomplete because there is so little time. The Minister must recognise that.

This will be another regulation placed on farmers. While this is the thin edge of the wedge, the wedge widens as it goes down and this is what farmers are afraid of. Will it affect their ability to get planning permission for sheds and different things on their lands down the line? We need answers to that. Farmers are worried about things like that.

The Department already has 27,000 acres of national park in Kerry that it cannot properly manage. Rhododendron is out of control and deer are roaming the roads causing havoc. In buying up more land in Kilgarvan, Beaufort and other places over the past 12 months, the Department is competing against active farmers.

This action, or new standard, will take more time than is available. Applications have to be in by tomorrow, 15 May. I ask the Minister to give some leeway so that farmers can put correct applications in. Again, I ask the Minister to make clear whether farmers cut turf, as they have traditionally done, and as we have done in Reacaslagh for the past 200 years.

Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy for raising these points. On providing more time, the deadline for BISS applications is clearly 15 May. If I were to push that deadline back or try to extend it in any way, it would have a knock-on impact on the whole system of getting payments in place. We had delays in payments previously and are back on track in terms of making sure we can get the areas of natural constraint, ANC, scheme, BISS and single farm payments out on time and early, as we traditionally did. I do not want to interfere with that and there is no need to interfere with GAEC 2. The most important point is that farmers, whose land parcels come in under GAEC 2, are aware of that. They have the maps now to tell them that. It has always been the case that farmers seeking to lay new drainage in land with peat in it were subject to a planning permission requirement. That is the only planning requirement.

In regard to the Deputy's concerns around planning permission, the only people who know their land parcel is in GAEC 2 are the farmer and the Department of agriculture. The map is not published anywhere. The local authority does not know what land is subject to GAEC 2. The normal rules will apply in the case of any farmer seeking to apply for planning permission for a shed or house. The farmer will do a T-test on the ground to see if there is peat in it and the result will determine whether the farmer receives approval for having a septic tank in that ground. That will not change. The local authority to which the farmer is applying will not know whether it is GAEC 2 land or not. I do not know about Kerry but in Kildare if there is peat in the soil, a farmer will not get planning permission. However, a farmer will get it in the case of mineral soils or at least that will not be a reason for not getting permission.

The Deputy asked a direct question about areas of turf cutting. These areas are ineligible for BISS payments, so there is no change. GAEC 2 is only a baseline requirement for BISS, the single farm payment. If farmers are not applying for the single farm payment, which they cannot do for areas on which they are cutting turf, GAEC 2 does not apply. I am not saying the Deputy is scaremongering but others are. All of the scaremongering, concerns and misinformation out there on nature restoration, designation and planning permission in no way apply to GAEC 2. I give the Deputy an assurance that this time next year farmers in Kerry will not be coming to me because they have fallen foul of this or have received penalties. The reason is that their day-to-day activity will not change and the requirements they have to comply with have existed in legislation long before today.

Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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Do farmers have to leave out the patch where they are cutting turf?

Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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No, the patch where they are cutting turf would never qualify for BISS anyway. The farmers will not be applying-----

Ken O'Flynn (Cork North-Central, Independent Ireland Party)
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Discussion on this Topical Issue matter has concluded. The Minister might respond to the Deputy privately on that.

Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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That is no problem.