Paul Connaughton Snr (Galway East, Fine Gael)
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Question 348: To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he plans to reduce sheep numbers again on the mountains; if stocking rates of 1.5 ewes per hectare will be used as a reference point; if this low stocking rate will be reduced further by deducting the percentage sheep numbers which were already culled since the destocking programme commenced; if his attention has been drawn to the fact that this reduction could be as high as 48% of the original number of sheep reared on the hill areas; if his Department officials had meaningful discussions with the sheep farmers involved; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38633/08]

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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The issue referred to arises from the implementation of the EU Habitats and Wild Birds Directives, which is a matter in the first instance for the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government.

Destocking as set out in the Commonage Framework Plans was implemented in Ireland in 2003. In the light of scientific assessment, in subsequent years, of the condition of one Special Protection Area (SPA) in County Mayo and two Special Areas of Conservation (SACs) in County Galway, it was deemed necessary to implement additional grazing restrictions in order to address continuing overgrazing in these areas.

Following discussions with farmers and their representatives in which officials of my Department took part, the Minister, Deputy Gormley, has implemented new grazing regimes that go beyond the destocking requirements set out in the original Commonage Framework Plan. Under these arrangements, each farmer is allocated a grazing entitlement to the commonage proportionate to his or her share and the condition and habitat composition of the commonage. In some cases this will lead to additional destocking in overgrazed areas, where the farmer has insufficient land in suitable condition to sustain current flock numbers.

This model is applied in those areas where the recovery from overgrazing is very poor and compensation has been agreed with the farming organisations. Monitoring of the condition of commonage in other parts of the country will be used to assess whether similar interventions are required elsewhere.