Michael Colreavy (Sligo-North Leitrim, Sinn Fein)
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Question 12: To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will consider including red grouse and other wildlife birds as an agri environmental option scheme environmental option; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28658/12]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Council Directive 79/409/EC on the conservation of wild birds, commonly referred to as the 'Birds Directive', requires all Member States to maintain and protect naturally occurring birds in the wild. The National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) of the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht have designated sites known as Special Protection Areas (SPA's) to give effect to this directive in Ireland. These sites are formally notified to the European Commission and form part of a European network known as NATURA 2000 sites. The Red Grouse is one of the species that must be protected under the Directive.

Due to the on-going situation in the national finances, strict budgetary constraints remain in place and, as a result, management of the limited resources represents a very challenging situation involving difficult choices. Apart from the financial constraints, the contract periods with farmers under Rural Environment Protection Scheme and the Agri-environmental Options Scheme are well advanced and it would not be feasible to introduce new measures into those schemes at present. I am actively considering the possibility of re-opening AEOS to allow for the submission of applications either on an amended basis from the existing scheme and/or on a limited scale and would not propose the introduction of new measures at that stage.

However, I will consider the possibility of including measures for the protection of wildlife birds in the context of any new agri-environmental schemes that may be introduced in future following the negotiations on the reform of the Common Agriculture Policy, subject of course to resource constraints.