Seán Kyne (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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451. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine his views on whether a case could be made under the rules of stacking of entitlement to allow for stacking in the case of reduced forage areas for lands previously in an agri-environment options scheme or for commonage or for Natura land in an acknowledgement that an interference in these lands to maintain forage areas is ordinarily not permitted; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [53146/13]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Consolidation of Entitlements was introduced in 2005 under the Single Payment Scheme and is provided for in Council Regulation (EC) No 73/2009.

Consolidation (stacking) of entitlements means that in certain circumstances a farmer may give up to the National Reserve his/her own existing entitlements. The farmer is then re-allocated a lower number of entitlements with a higher net unit value.

Farmers who satisfy certain conditions are eligible to apply to have their entitlements consolidated. The reduction in the number of hectares must have arisen because of one or more of the following circumstances:

- The acquisition of land by a public authority under a Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) for non-agriculture.

- Lands leased in/ rented in during all or part of the reference period (2000-2002) where the lease /rental agreement has expired or will expire and the land parcels in question are no longer available.

Lands declared by farmers under the Single Payment Scheme, the Disadvantaged Areas Scheme and other Direct Payment Schemes must be eligible if these lands are to benefit from payment under one of more of these Schemes. Ineligible features such as houses, scrub, roads, rivers etc must be excluded. Consolidation may not be applied following such exclusions.