In the context of the REP scheme, commonage land is subject to a 1998 agreement with the European Commission following which the scheme was revised in 1999 to include a new supplementary Measure A. The objective of this measure, which is called Measure A in the new REP scheme, is to provide a comprehensive approach to the conservation and regeneration of designated target areas including commonages.
It is important to recall that in 1998 there was so much concern about overgrazing on commonages in the west that the EU was threatening to put a stop to all REPS payments on commonages in Donegal, Leitrim, Sligo, Mayo, Galway and Kerry. In spite of this difficulty, my Department secured an agreement that allowed us to pay up to £190 annually per hectare on commonage to REPS farmers, not just in the six western counties but in every part of the country. Conditions attaching to these payments include an overall reduction in sheep numbers on commonages, to deliver environmental sustainability and, where necessary, regeneration of the commonage areas. This is to be achieved by the drawing up of a commonage framework plan for every commonage.
As the preparation of framework plans for each commonage was a major exercise, an interim national framework plan was put in place to give immediate effect to the 1998 agreement and to allow for payments to be made to individual farmers. Under this interim plan, ewe numbers may not exceed 70% of the 1998 figures in the six western counties where the overgrazing issue was deemed to be most serious. Under the 1998 agreement any reductions in ewe numbers in other counties are determined by approved REPS planners when drawing up REPS plans. Quotas frozen under the interim framework plan will be revised to conform with the actual level of destocking that may be required under individual framework plans.
Farmers in the six western counties who had joined REPS before the 1998 agreement on supplementary Measure A would have had their REPS plans drawn up and stocking densities calculated at individual farm level. However, the Measure A agreement requires the commonage overgrazing problem to be addressed globally and it is for that reason those farmers too, if they submitted amended plans after 1998 or applied to join the new REP scheme, became subject to the 30% interim destocking. Any quota frozen in their original REPS plans would, however, be taken into account in calculating the 30% in their cases. When all the commonage framework plans are completed and implemented, all existing REPS participants will be required to adjust their stocking levels to conform with the framework plans where this is a requirement of their REPS contract.
The payment of £190 per hectare that my Department secured in 1998 includes compensation for reductions in stock. Therefore, farmers could not benefit from a destocking payment while at the same time increasing their stocking intensities. Under the terms of the 1998 agreement with the Commission, farmers with commonage were to have the choice of joining REPS or taking part in a national compensation scheme to be operated by the Department of Arts, Heri tage, Gaeltacht and the Islands. Proposals for the latter scheme are with the EU Commission.
