Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein)
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981. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine further to Parliamentary Question No. 95 of 28 February 2024, if there has been direct engagement with any farmers whose scores are affected as a result of the proposed buffer zone; if he is aware that turbary zones on commonage are often shared and accessed across communities, and that farmers taking part in ACRES cannot police commonage areas; if consideration has been given to not proceeding with a buffer zone in turbary areas on commonage, given that farmers were unaware of such a rule, and the negative impact it could have on scoring for ACRES payments; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12036/24]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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With reference to assessment of certain commonage for payment under the Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES), while there has not been direct engagement by my Department with farmers, my Department has engaged, and is continuing to engage, with farmer representatives who have raised concerns about how the protocol applied to the turbary areas will affect the overall commonage parcel scores.

I am fully aware of issues relating to commonages and their management. Farm representatives brought their concerns to me, before any scoring of commonages took place, that turbary areas could disproportionately impact on the score of an overall commonage parcel. A protocol was accordingly put in place by my Department, in conjunction with the ACRES Co-operation Project (CP) teams, to mitigate the negative impact that turbary would have on commonage scores, while at the same maintaining the environmental integrity of the scheme.

Commonage parcels with turbary have been fully scored and submitted by CP teams on the basis of this protocol.