Conor McGuinness (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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129. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if his Department will engage with hill farmers in relation to localised management of mountain environments taking account of international best practice. [66663/25]

Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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My Department will continue to engage with Hill Farmer stakeholders regarding their concerns on the management of mountain environments.

While ACRES, the current agri-environment climate measure under the 2023-2027 CAP Strategic Plan, is closed for applications, my Department will be engaging in due course with a range of stakeholders in relation to the development of new measures for the next CAP programming period post-2027.

Hill farmers who are participating in the ACRES Co-operation approach may avail of complementary environmental actions under the Non-Productive Investments (NPIs) and Landscape Actions elements of the ACRES Co-operation approach.

While their ACRES advisor can advise them as to whether NPIs are appropriate for their lands, the ACRES Co-operation Project (CP) Teams, whose services were procured by my Department, engage with the participants in their respective zones in relation to Landscape Actions. I understand that a number of the CP Teams held information meetings in their areas to bring the options available under the Landscape Action element to the attention of ACRES Co-operation participants.

For a land parcel to be eligible under the Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS) scheme, agricultural activity must be taking place in a parcel. Agricultural activity is the use of the parcel to produce agricultural products, such as livestock rearing and fattening, milk production, the growing of fodder crops (silage, hay), tillage and energy crops, or, indeed, the maintenance of the agricultural area.

This definition of agricultural activity considers the physical limitations that certain parcels can be constrained by, in particular hill and upland parcels, and allows other forms of agricultural activity, outside of production to be carried out.

This broad definition of agricultural activity allows uplands to be managed in a way that best suits the local conditions and that takes account of best practice.