Brendan Griffin (Kerry, Fine Gael)
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728. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine when a payment will issue to a person (details supplied) in County Kerry; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8452/23]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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The Pearl Mussel Project is operationally independent of the Department and is run by the Pearl Mussel Project Team.

Participants should contact the Pearl Mussel project team directly for information regarding their payments. Their website, containing all contact details is: www.pearlmusselproject.ie/

My office has contacted the PMP offices and they have confirmed that they are processing the payments in batches and currently there are batches yet to be processed but this is being worked on.

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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729. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the status of a GLAS payment for a person (details supplied); if he will review his Department’s initial decision on this payment in view of the medical evidence furnished on appeal; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8461/23]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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The person named applied successfully for GLAS 1 with a contract commencement date of 1st October 2015.

The GLAS contract was selected for an on-farm inspection on 14th November 2022. During the course of this inspection, areas of non-compliance with the Terms and Conditions of the scheme were noted and outlined in the Notification of Findings letter which issued 25th January 2023. A 100% Eligibility penalty was applied to the Planting New Hedgerow action.

The option to appeal this decision was also outlined in the Notification of Findings letter. An appeal has been received and is currently under consideration.

Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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730. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will introduce a scheme to incentivise the planting on trees on cutaway bogs that are no longer used for peat harvesting; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8497/23]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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In October 2019, Coillte and Bord na Móna announced a new initiative to plant approximately 4 million native trees across 1500 hectares of Bord na Móna land that is no longer used for peat production.

Bord na Móna formally ended all peat harvesting on its lands by the end of 2019. As a result of this cessation in peat harvesting, industrial cutover peatlands are becoming increasingly available for other land use options, including opportunities for the restoration of native woodland habitats.

Further to a request for support for exploration of possibilities for native woodland creation on former industrial cutaway peatlands by Bord na Móna, my Department developed a Pilot Scheme that is intended to facilitate the establishment of new native woodlands on state owned former industrial cutover peatlands on a pilot basis.

This Pilot Scheme facilitates native woodland regeneration at landscape scale, on some 203 ha in and around the Littleton Bog complex which straddles the Tipperary and Kilkenny county boundaries, aiming at minimum intervention, and is compatible with other forms of peatland restoration measures at this scale.

The overall purpose of the Pilot Scheme is to support biodiversity, help reduce carbon emissions and stabilise soils to minimise soil erosion. These objectives are therefore different to the objectives of the Afforestation Scheme.

The Pilot Scheme aims at mimicking natural vegetation establishment processes in high, dry areas and on slopes that are not suitable for re-wetting. Bord na Móna intends to complement their rehabilitation plans for end-of-life cutaway bogs by creating a mosaic of wetlands and sparse woodlands that enhances biodiversity value, stabilises the loose peatland soil and reduces carbon losses. No project like this has been undertaken before and the Pilot therefore includes the establishment of trials to explore the most effective silvicultural techniques.

The Pilot Scheme was developed in accordance with provisions of the Forestry Act 2014 and is compliant with national and EU legislation, operational and environmental guidelines. It has been proposed to continue to offer this Pilot through the Forestry Programme 2023-2027 subject to State Aid approval.

Following the specific purpose of this Pilot Scheme, the Scheme is confined to State bodies who own former industrial cutaway peatlands.

Grant funding for native woodlands created under this Pilot Scheme is subject to the applicant obtaining a licence for afforestation from the Minister.

Carol Nolan (Laois-Offaly, Independent)
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731. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will clarify the basis for introducing a 120-cow limit to herds for those seeking TAMS funding for milking parlour facilities; if his attention has been drawn to reports that this limit has given rise to significant concern among young farmers; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8591/23]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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I have introduced some changes to TAMS under the TAMs 3 scheme to better align it with overall agriculture and environmental priorities. For applications under the Dairy Equipment Capital Investment Scheme, Women Farmers Capital Investment Scheme and Organic Capital Investment Scheme, applicants may apply for up to 10 milking units in a herringbone parlour, or one robotic milking machine, if they have less than 120 cows on average over the year preceding the making of an application. This ensures that priority goes to the family farm.

For applicants under the Young Farmer Capital Investment Scheme (YFCIS) and also for registered farm partnerships involving a young farmer, the limit on cow numbers for the preceding year is set at 160 dairy cows.

I can also confirm that the limit relates only to the milking machine investments and does not apply to any other investments under any of the 10 Targeted Agricultural Modernisation Schemes (TAMS 3) that are being put in place. Almost 80% of all dairy herds in the country will remain eligible to apply for milking machine investments under the 120 cow ceiling.

When a farmer is planning to update their system, investment in the milking machine is only a portion of the required investment. It is important that dairy farmers also invest in animal housing, slurry storage, fodder storage and making their holding more accessible. To this end the TAMS schemes are designed to encourage farmers to invest in these animal welfare and environmentally beneficial investments before investing in additional milking equipment. In addition to the investments being carried over from TAMS II there is a wide range of additional investments being introduced for farmers, including farm roadways, bovine fencing, health and fertility monitoring systems, automatic drafting systems, public road underpasses and milk recording systems, to name just a few.