Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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122. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of commonage planners that have been appointed in commonages to draw up commonage plans; the number of commonages covered; the mechanism in place to ensure that the planners have the consent of the shareholders in the commonage to draw up these plans before appointment; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26571/15]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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A total of 3,934 farmers applying for GLAS have commonage land and have already committed to joining a commonage management plan as a precondition of approval into the new Scheme. Just under 2,700 commonages will be covered by these new plans. The drawing up of these plans marks a significant development in terms of Ireland’s uplands, with trained commonage advisers walking and assessing these habitats in order to put in place a sustainable management regime for these hills.

My Department has in place an authorisation process for appointing these commonage advisers and as part of this process the adviser must secure the consent of shareholders to act on their behalf by means of a signed authorisation form. The closing date for receipt of these forms was Friday 19 June, 2015 and the various applications received are being collated and assessed.

On the basis of processing of applications to date, which involves substantive verification checks, 52 commonage advisors have been appointed for 342 commonages. It is expected that these figures will increase substantially once all applications on hand have been processed and this work is currently being prioritised and well under way.