Vol. 524 No. 4
83 Cecilia Keaveney asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Rural Development if the framework plans for County Donegal have been completed; if so, when farmers may expect to recover their quota where such quota is owed; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22718/00]
Individual commonage framework plans for all commonages are in the process of being drawn up by my Department and the Department of Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands.
The position in relation to County Donegal is that the total area of commonage in the county is in the region of 81,700 hectares. Commonage framework plans have been completed and approved in respect of a substantial area of the total commonage. The balance, yet to be approved, has been assigned to teams of trained framework planners and work is ongoing. The individual plans will be implemented when all the work is completed.
Pending implementation of individual commonage framework plans, farmers with commonage land were required to reduce ewe numbers by 30% under the terms of an interim commonage framework plan. When the individual commonage framework plans are implemented, stocking levels on individual REPS plans will be adjusted in accordance with the destocking level as set out in the relevant commonage framework plan.
