Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 30 April 2015
110. Deputy Éamon Ó Cuív asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the reason farmers with land designated as special protection areas to protect the hen harrier may not apply to both the organic scheme and the green low-carbon agri-environmental scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17045/15]
View answerThere are no restrictions on farmers who have land designated for the Hen Harrier from applying to join either the Organic Farming Scheme or GLAS, or both. However, as both schemes are delivered under Ireland’s Rural Development Programme 2014 – 2020 the provisions to guard against double-funding apply. This means that where both the GLAS Hen Harrier prescription and the Organic Farming Scheme prescription are delivered on the same land, payment in respect of both would result in double-funding. This is because both payments compensate for income foregone as a result of reduced productivity arising from restrictions on the use of chemical fertilisers. In such cases, an Organic Farmer who wishes to avail of GLAS can simply forego the organic payment on that parcel in favour of the higher GLAS payment to protect and conserve the bird habitat.
