STATEMENT BY MICHAEL RING T.D.
19 December 2006
Ring queries proposed National Compensation Scheme for
commonage farmers
Mayo Deputy Michael Ring has questioned the Minister for Environment, Heritage &
Local Government in the Dáil and has asked him to outline the main differences
between the REP scheme and the proposed national compensation scheme for
commonage farmers who are not in the REP scheme but are affected by de-stocking
regulations. Deputy Ring also asked if the amount of (cattle bovine) livestock units
was taken into account when the destocking of sheep on mountains for commonage
framework plans was being drawn up.
Minister Roche replied “In the Owenduff/Nephinbeg Special Protection Area (SPA), it
is a condition of the Notifiable Actions for the SPA that farmers be in an approved
agri-environmental plan. This is necessary because of the poor condition of the
peatland habitat of the SPA generally and the lack of recovery in the commonage
area, specifically, since the commonage plans were initially prepared.
The REPS scheme, which is administered by the Department of Agriculture and
Food, is a per hectare payment for commonage lands, regardless of the restrictions,
whereas the NPWS farm plan compensated the farmer for the actual loss suffered in
farming in the required way. In the case of destocking, payment in the NPWS
scheme is for destocked sheep.
In the destocking calculation, all livestock (including cattle) are converted to ewe
equivalents. In the case of commonages, sheep are required to be destocked first
in all cases and farmers cannot voluntarily destock cattle instead of sheep.
However, in the rare cases where cattle destocking is an environmental requirement
of the farm plan, compensation will also be paid for this destocking.”
Ends..