Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael)
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Question 161: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government in view of the special area of conservation designated at Tacumshin Lake, County Wexford, if he will provide a list of the landowners involved in the scheme; the compensation agreed with those involved; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16219/10]

John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)
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Tacumshin Lake was designated a Special Protection Area (SPA) on the 8 October, 1996. Designation of SPA's does not, of itself, give rise to an entitlement to compensation.

I assume the scheme referred to in the Question is my Department's National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) Farm Plan Scheme, which was launched in February 2006. It operates as an alternative agri-environmental scheme to those administered by the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and pays farmers and landholders for losses incurred as a result of restrictions due to the designation of their lands as Special Areas of Conservation, Special Protected Areas or Natural Heritage Areas.

No farmer in the Tacumshin Lake SPA has joined the NPWS farm plan scheme.