The restriction on stocking levels is the outcome of an agreement negotiated with the EU Commission in 1998, which secured the payments under measure A of REPS, known as supplementary measure A in the old scheme. The agreement was negotiated at a time when, because of significant environmental problems caused by overgrazing of sheep, the European Commission withdrew approval for payment on any commonage land declared in new REPS applications and intimated that it was contemplating compulsory measures to control overgrazing with no compensation for farmers.
My Department instead secured the Commission's agreement to introduce supplementary measure A of REPS, under which it has been possible to make very generous payments of up to €242 a hectare to farmers with commonage land. It was a condition of this agreement that my Department, together with Dúchas, was required to have individual framework plans prepared for each commonage. The framework plans are objective scientific assessments of the environmental state of the commonages and the impact on them of grazing by sheep, and in many cases they recommend a certain level of destocking to allow damaged vegetation to regenerate.
At individual farm level, the destocking calculation is based on the 2001 quota, including any quota that may have been frozen previously under the interim 30% destocking applied in 1998 on six western counties including Mayo. The rules that I have announced for implementing the commonage framework plans are as flexible as they can be within the limits of the agreement with the Commission and no further changes can be made without Commission approval.
In February 2002, in an effort to place as much information as possible in the public domain, the percentage destocking required on completed commonage framework plans was posted on my Department's website on a townland by townland basis. In respect of the area referred to, a clerical error unfortunately resulted in the publication on the website of an incorrect destocking figure of 16.19% instead of the correct figure of 70.68%. When this error came to light it was immediately rectified on the website and letters subsequently issued informing shareholders of the correct preliminary calculation of their individual destocking requirements. In keeping with the rules for implementing the framework plans which I have announced, in 2003 no farmer in the area concerned will be subject to destocking of more than 50% and no farmer will have his or her quota reduced below 25.
