Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail)
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306. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if farmers on farms which have commonage grazing rights but which do not actively avail of their commonage rights to graze stock will be eligible to apply for the new GLAS scheme for the remainder of their farm land which they own outright; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [47909/14]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Commonage land is a priority environmental asset under GLAS, which in turn guarantees priority access to the scheme. Farmers who declared commonage land on their Single Payment application in 2014 must commit to joining a Commonage Management Plan as part of their GLAS application, in the same way that a farmer with any other priority environmental asset must agree to undertake the appropriate actions set out for that asset, whether it is for example a threatened species of farmland bird, a high status water course or an important habitat. It is not possible, therefore, for a farmer who declared commonage land in their 2014 SPS application to avoid addressing that asset and opting to come into GLAS on the basis of his or her other land only.