Michael Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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517. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if his attention has been drawn to the increasing amounts of marginal lands being abandoned and no longer being used for agricultural or forestation purposes; his views on this issue; his plans to deal with the problem; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23250/17]

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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My Department implements a number of schemes and measures which seek to underpin the continued use of marginal lands for agricultural and forestry purposes.  For example, under Pillar 2 of the Common Agricultural Policy my Department has rolled out a range of schemes as part of the €4bn Rural Development Programme, 2014-2020.  Included in this is the Areas of Natural Constraints Scheme which provides €200m of support annually to some 96,000 farmers who are farming in areas which have been categorised as facing particular constraints.  The stated objectives of this scheme include continued agricultural land usage.  The RDP also includes targeted supports to farmers under schemes such as GLAS. Similarly a range of supports in relation to forestry are provided under the Forestry Programme 2014 to 2020.

Under Pillar 1, my Department makes annual payments of €1.2bn to approximately 124,000 farmers under the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS).  As part of CAP reform Ireland has implemented the convergence model under the BPS between 2015 and 2019. All entitlements held under the Basic Payment Scheme are subject to convergence.  Farmers who hold entitlements that have an Initial Unit Value that is below 90% of the Basic Payment Scheme national average will see the value of their entitlements increase gradually over the five years of the scheme. By 2019, all entitlements for all farmers in Ireland will be at least 60% of the National Average value.