Dáil Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 11 Dec 2002

Vol. 559 No. 2

Written Answers. - Grant Payments.

Seán Ryan

Question:

66 Mr. S. Ryan asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food if his attention has been drawn to the concerns of farmers in relation to compulsory destocking of commonage sheep; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25765/02]

Minister for Agriculture and Food (Mr. Walsh)

The freezing of ewe quota on some commonages is the outcome of an agreement between my Department and the European Commission in 1998, which secured generous REPS payments of up to €242 per hectare to farmers with commonage. This agreement was reached at a time when overgrazing by sheep, particularly on commonages in the west, had reached a point where the Commission had threatened to stop all REPS payments on those areas. My Department had to suspend the processing of REPS involving commonage applications in the six western counties that included large areas of commonage. As a result of the 1998 agreement with the Commission, however, an additional €7 million per year is now being paid on top of the basic REPS payments to the 3,700 farmers with commonage land who are in REPS. This represents an average additional payment of €1,800 per farmer and it brings the total average annual payment for REPS farmers with commonage land to €7,100.

Under the 1998 agreement with the Commission, my Department together with Dúchas was required to have individual framework plans prepared for each commonage. Most of the framework plans have now been completed and my Department has written to farmers holding ewe quota to advise them of the recalculation of their quota allocations for 2003. Individual stocking levels have been calculated with reference to the destocking requirement of the relevant plans together with the data already held in the Department in respect of the farmers concerned. While ewe premium in 2003 will be payable only on the quota now notified to them, farmers will have a year to bring their actual stocking levels into line with these calculations and can therefore choose the most advantageous time to sell or acquire stock.

The destocking arrangements are required to implement measures to protect and rejuvenate commonage areas that may be at a risk of overgrazing. They are an integral part of the agreement with the EU Commission secured in 1998. Any failure to implement them would put in question the generous REPS payments based on that agreement. Farmers who are subject to these measures, if they are not already participating in REPS, must apply during 2003 to join REPS or a complementary national scheme to be operated by Dúchas.

I have also recently announced arrangements under which farmers with commonage can appeal the destocking percentages recommended in the commonage framework plans. An appeal will be dealt with by way of a reassessment of the scientific basis on which the original destocking arrangements were made by the framework planning teams.