Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail)
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661. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht further to Parliamentary Question No. 529 of 8 October 2019, each specified activity in question; if the 2004 agreement provided for a payment for designation to reflect its effect on land values or a payment for the management of that land; if so, the payment provided per hectare; and the annual budget allocated for each year that the agreement operated. [42172/19]

Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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The total list of Activities Requiring Consent (ARCs) is provided in the table.  The ARCs listed for a Natura 2000 site are determined by the habitats/species that a site is selected for e.g. ARC 23 is only listed in SPA sites selected for the conservation of Corncrake.  Therefore the numbers of ARCS for each site will vary considerably.

The 2004 agreement states “that a fair and proper level of compensation shall be paid for any costs or losses of income or value which result from restrictions on farming or other existing activities” and that “standard rates of compensation will be agreed where possible, calculated to provide reasonable support for landowners in implementing measures required to conserve particular habitats and species, and having regard to all compliance costs”.  Regulation 41 of the  European Communities (Birds and Natural Habitats) Regulations 2011 sets out, in section (1) (a) “Where the Minister refuses consent to an activity under Regulation 30, he or she shall, save for the reasons set out in paragraphs (5) and (6), pay to the owner or occupier or user as the case may be by way of compensation an amount equal to the loss suffered by the owner, occupier or user by the depreciation of an interest in the land to which he or she is entitled,” and that “Subject to subparagraph (b), the amount of compensation payable under paragraph (1) shall be determined by reference to the difference between the antecedent and subsequent value of the land or of an interest in the land consequent on the refusal, modification, variation, or revocation of consent”.

Rates for alterations to farming regimes to incentivise improved management of lands for biodiversity have been paid through the NPWS farm plan scheme since 2006.  Some bespoke plans calculated the actual cost of compliance while other plan types, typically for species, operated on the basis of standard rates.  These rates were not specified in the 2004 agreement.

Discussions are ongoing with the farming organisations with respect to reviewing the 2004 agreement.

The annual budgetary allocations to the NPWS farm plan scheme are provided in the following table, although some of the allocation figures from 10 years and more ago are not available.  I am pleased to confirm that as a result of Budget 2020 , I am doubling the allocation to the Farm Plan Scheme in 2020 to €1m.