Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Question 362: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the position regarding sheep farmers on the Nephin Beg mountain range; if the sheep farmers in question agreed to destock numbers to 30% of their respective quotas and remove sheep off the mountain for five months of the year; if having taken this action sheep farmers have since been told that only 20 to 25 sheep per flock are being allowed back on the mountain after the five month holding period; if he will confirm that this is not what farmers were told and understood that they had agreed to; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24121/07]

John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)
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Overgrazing of livestock in the Nephin Beg area has given rise to environmental problems, particularly loss of vegetation and soil erosion in commonages. In this regard, damage to the habitat of the Red Grouse in the Owenduff/Nephin Beg Complex Special Protection Area (SPA) in County Mayo has been the subject of a continuing infringement case, under the Birds Directive, taken against Ireland by the European Commission in the European Court of Justice. A Commission Reasoned Opinion of 18 October 2006 states that the Irish authorities must implement measures and demonstrate improvements in this area and in other commonages.

My Department, in cooperation with the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and the Commission, has been working with farming interests to resolve the issue of appropriate commonage management, which is made complex by the multiple shareholdings involved. This will be achieved through the amendment of existing REPS plans, or the preparation of an agri-environmental farm plan through a special National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) scheme. General principles applicable to these amended plans have been agreed with farming interests and are as follows: All active farmers who wish to continue to farm within the SPA must be in an approved agri-environmental plan. Full destocking as provided for in the commonage plans will be delivered. There will be a closed period in commonages (and adjacent unfenced privately owned SPA) for five months (1 November to 31 December and 14 February to 13 May) during which there will be no stock allowed go to the hills. Farm planners have been issued with guidelines on appropriate stocking regimes based on the condition of the commonages to which farmers wish to return stock.

Compensation is payable in the NPWS scheme for destocked sheep and offwintered sheep. Where the existing REPS plan does not provide for this destocking, NPWS will also pay €2000 per annum to each farmer. The purpose of these initiatives is to ensure that ecological recovery takes place in damaged commonages in the area. The number of sheep that are allowed return to the commonage is based on the best available scientific advice, and will vary according to individual and local circumstances in each commonage, as well as the number of shares that a farmer holds in the commonage. In some cases it may be restricted to 25 sheep but in other cases it may be considerably greater. Farmers will be given a summer allocation of stock to the hill for seven months, which may be increased if returned for a period shorter than seven months.

It is important that the destocking measures negotiated locally and summarised above be implemented. I am hopeful that the infringement proceedings taken by the European Commission can be resolved on the basis of real progress in securing recovery of damaged habitats.