Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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599. To ask the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht if she will provide details of the National Parks and Wildlife Service farm plan scheme, including when this scheme was introduced; the maximum level of payment available under this scheme; when access to the scheme was terminated; the reason for the introduction of the scheme in the first instance; her plans with regard to a successor to this scheme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [45188/14]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) Farm Plan Scheme was introduced in 2006, to incentivise farmers to manage Natura 2000 land in a manner that went above and beyond statutory requirements and where such necessary measures were not provided for in the national agri-environment schemes that were available at that time. The scheme effectively trialled agri-environment interventions at a relatively small scale to inform measures that could be taken forward in due course at a larger scale under the Rural Development Programme (RDP). It was never envisaged that the NPWS farm plan scheme would replace national, co-financed, agri-environment schemes such as REPS, AEOS, or GLAS.

Farmers were paid upon certification of compliance with an approved NPWS farm plan. These plans were prepared on the basis of either the cost to the farmer of compliance or on the basis of rates per hectare for specific management in adherence to a prescription. Therefore, in all cases, payments were specific to the farm in question and related to the measure in question, the eligible lands in which the measure was applied and the cost of compliance where this was not covered in a rate per hectare. In some cases, there was a tiered approach to payments, with a diminishing rate above certain area thresholds. Where rates per hectare were relevant, these varied depending on the habitat or species being planned. Access to the NPWS Farm Plan Scheme was curtailed in April 2010, due to budgetary constraints.

In general, it is envisaged that future support for farmers within Natura areas should come from the EU co-funded Rural Development Programme, particularly through the new GLAS scheme. My Department has been working with, and made a number of submissions to, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine on the Rural Development Programme and the GLAS measures in particular, and has advised on the priority measures for Natura habitats and species. These priorities were identified in Ireland’s Prioritised Action Framework, which was formally published last week. This framework, which has been approved by Government, identifies a range of actions needed to help improve the status of Ireland's habitats and wildlife.