Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

388. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine to outline the eligibility criteria that will be used to determine whether a sufficient agricultural activity is present on the following commonages in south Galway in future: Kilbeg, Cloughan, Gornaglev, Kilnagappagh, Keelderry and Derrybrien west; the level of farming activity that will be required to be carried out on these sites for them to be eligible for the basic payment and the greening payment; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11999/15]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

In order to be eligible for payment under the Basic Payment Scheme, an applicant must declare an eligible hectare for each payment entitlement held. Applicants under the Direct Payment Schemes and other area based schemes are obliged to carry out an agricultural activity on the land declared for aid. The governing EU regulations define an agricultural activity as the production, rearing or growing of agricultural products, including harvesting, milking, breeding animals, and keeping animals for farming purposes and maintaining an agricultural area in a state which makes it suitable for grazing or cultivation. An applicant is free to choose an activity that best suits their farming enterprise and the land they are farming.

The farming activity should be such that it maintains the land in a state eligible for payment. A parcel subject to normal husbandry practices such as cropping, cutting hay/silage or grazing by animals at an appropriate and sufficient stocking rate to control invasive species is considered as being in such a state.

As regards maintenance of mountain and hill land, generally the only way of keeping it in an eligible state is by grazing it with an adequate level of livestock appropriate to the conditions.