Seán Kyne (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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433. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if consideration will be given to farmers who volunteer lands to county councils for greenways, in terms of retaining the use of this land in calculating areas for entitlements and disadvantaged area payments as there are at present no compensatory payments being made to the farmers for this public good; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27200/14]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Under the Terms & Conditions of the Direct Aid Schemes, which includes the Single Payment Scheme and the Disadvantaged Areas Scheme, farmers are obliged to declare only eligible land when making their applications, are to exclude ineligible features such as roads, buildings, farmyards, dense scrub, etc. These claims are then recorded on the Department’s Land Parcel Identification System (LPIS).

In relation to eligible area under the Single Payment Scheme, the 2014 Terms and Conditions provide as follows:

In order to draw down payment in respect of your SPS entitlements, you must have an “eligible hectare” to accompany each entitlement. In this context, an “eligible hectare” is land that is used for an agricultural activity and includes land used to grow cereals, oilseeds, short rotation coppice, miscanthus sinensis, protein crops, sugar beet, maize, fodder beet, turnips, mangolds, kale, vegetables, potatoes, grass for silage or hay or grazing. REPS areas such as newly created habitats under option 4a of REPS 3 and REPS 4,. Areas under linnet and riparian zones are also eligible for SPS.

The Terms and Conditions provide further, as follows:

For land to be eligible, a number of further conditions have to be complied with, namely:

1. The land must be used and managed by the applicant. If the applicant is not the owner, he/she must have a lease or rental agreement in place with the owner of the land. The land must be suitable for and compatible with the farming enterprise;

2. There must be independent and suitable access for animals and/or machinery. Independent access means access by public or private roadway or by a defined right of way. Access over adjoining landowners land, or over land which is subject to a lease or rental agreement to another person, is not acceptable;

3. There must be appropriate fencing for the farming enterprise. Appropriate fencing means stockproof fencing that will control the applicant’s animals and also the neighbouring farmer’s animals. In mountain/hill areas this generally means sheep fencing;

4. There must be defined external boundaries except in the case of commonage;

5. If at inspection the applicant claims to be farming the land with animals then the type of animals must be appropriate to the land and there must be appropriate handling facilities available to meet the animals’ welfare requirements.

6. The releasing of animals onto a parcel without conducting the normal husbandry and welfare practices throughout the year does not satisfy the requirement of an agricultural activity and will be deemed to be in breach of Article 30 of Council Regulation 73/2009

7. There must be evidence of an agricultural activity being conducted throughout the parcel, otherwise the unused part(s) of the parcel may be found to be ineligible. This can arise where the stocking rate is too low.

Furthermore, Section 21 of the 2014 Terms & Conditions provides as follows in regard to the Disadvantaged Areas Scheme:

(3) Occupy and farm in your own right and at your own risk a minimum of 3 hectares of forage land, situated in an area within the State designated as a Disadvantaged Area by the Minister and classified as Less Severely Handicapped Lowland or as a Coastal Area with Specific Handicaps or as More Severely Handicapped Lowland or as Mountain Type Grazing.