Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry South, Independent)
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230. To ask the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht if she will provide a breakdown of the amount paid from the hen harrier compensation scheme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [7326/15]

Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry South, Independent)
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232. To ask the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht if she will provide a breakdown of the amount each county and each designated special protection area received of the €24 million that was paid from the scheme to over 750 applicants; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [7328/15]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 230 and 232 together.

The National Parks & Wildlife Service (NPWS) Farm Plan Scheme commenced in 2006. This was not a compensation scheme, but rather a proactive incentivisation scheme to trial approaches to farming for conservation in some of Ireland's most important biodiversity areas, where there were no specifically targeted measures in national agri-environment schemes. Eleven types of NPWS Farm Plan Scheme were implemented.

A total of 728 NPWS Farm Plans were approved, typically of a 5-year duration. Of these, 376 were for Hen Harrier, which applied in the Special Protection Areas outlined in Table 1 below.

The general scheme was closed to new applicants in April 2010 and my Department is honouring contracted commitments to the end of the 5-year period. As of this date, 120 NPWS plans remain active, of which 76 relate to the protection of the Hen Harrier.

Of the total expenditure of €24.7m incurred on the NPWS Farm Plan Scheme, over €14m has been spent from 2008 to date for the protection of the Hen Harrier. The information sought in terms of financial breakdown per designated site and county is not readily available and its compilation would involve a disproportionate amount of time and work, which would be difficult to justify.

Table 1: NPWS Hen Harrier Farm Plans