Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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1596. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he can clarify a point in relation to commonage in the new ACRES scheme (details supplied) and the effect this is going to have on shareholders; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13955/23]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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Commonage has been included as a Tier 1 action within the Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES) to incentivise farmers to help ensure that habitats on such lands are maintained/restored to good condition through appropriate management practices.

Any participant in ACRES with eligible commonage lands undertook as part of the ACRES contract to allow all commonage parcels to be assessed by an approved commonage assessor, so that a result based score could be assigned to that commonage. A payment will be paid to that shareholder based on the score awarded. This assessment can be carried out without the consent or agreement of all shareholders where at least one shareholder is an ACRES participant. This results based score will assess all activities taking place on the commonage. These activities will be reflected in the score and therefore will ultimately affect the ACRES payment.

ACRES aims to incentivise shareholders to come together in commonage management groups to address factors that may be affecting the results based score on the commonage. ACRES participants in the Co-op zones will have recourse to non-productive investments and landscape action supports designed to improve habitat restoration. These capital investments provide a mechanism for score improvement with consequent positive impacts on the level of payment in subsequent years.

Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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1597. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will outline the legal implications for farmers with commonage shareholdings who wish to participate in ACRES (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13956/23]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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Commonage has been included as a Tier 1 action within the Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES) to incentivise farmers to help ensure that habitats on such lands are maintained/restored to good condition through appropriate management practices.

As a registered shareholder in a commonage parcel, each shareholder has the right to declare that share for the various department schemes and does not require the consent of other shareholders to do this. In ACRES each shareholder who has an entitlement to a commonage share, and declares that share on his/her annual BISS application, includes that commonage share in their application.

At application stage, ACRES participants with commonage undertook to allow commonage parcels to be assessed by an approved commonage assessor, so that a result based score could be assigned and a subsequent payment made based on that score. This assessment can be carried out without the consent or agreement of all shareholders where at least one shareholder is an ACRES participant.

Following the results of this assessment, shareholders of commonages in ACRES Co-op zones will have recourse to non-productive investments and landscape actions that are designed for habitat restoration. Any such works will require the consent and agreement of all shareholders in the commonage, both ACRES and non-ACRES shareholders.