Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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305. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine his plans to ensure that individual farmers in commonages do not put too much stock on the commonage to the detriment of other shareholders' interests, in the absence of commonage framework plans; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6037/15]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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GLAS ( the Green Low-Carbon Agri-environment Scheme) as proposed under the new Rural Development Programme ) specifically addresses the question of the sustainable management of commonages. A key component of managing a commonage is the implementation of an appropriate grazing regime. To this end a Management Plan for the commonage must be drawn up by an approved agricultural adviser and within that Plan those farmers participating in GLAS will be assigned individual minimum stocking densities. Within the Plan there will also be flexibility to exceed the individual minimums, but the maximum livestock density for the entire commonage may never be exceeded.