Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 8 October 2015
80. Deputy Brendan Griffin asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the up-to-date position on his efforts to bring about a fair deal for owners of hen harrier designated lands; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35041/15]
View answerThe Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht is currently developing a Threat Response Plan (TRP) for Hen Harriers. That Department has also established an Inter-Departmental Steering Group, incorporating representatives from key Departments, to assist in the development of the Plan. The TRP is focusing on a number of key pressures which have been identified as impacting on the conservation of the species, the three main pressures being forestry, agriculture and windfarm development. In this regard the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht has established a Consultative Committee, comprising relevant representatives from the forestry, agriculture and wind farm sectors, to contribute to the formulation of the Plan and discussions are now progressing, with further information to be provided by the results of the 2015 National Hen Harrier Survey. The intention of the TRP will be to bring clarity to farmers, forest owners and other landowners about future land management activities in the SPAs, by setting out the measures identified as being necessary to preserve, maintain or re-establish suitable Hen Harrier habitats.
In relation to forestry, it is envisaged that the TRP will determine, inter alia, the circumstances in which afforestation, if any, might be accommodated in Hen Harrier SPAs without impacting on the conservation of the species. In the meantime, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) is not in a position to grant approval for any afforestation projects in those areas, until the TRP has been completed and measures identified as being necessary to preserve, maintain or re-establish suitable Hen Harrier habitats have been determined.
In addition, under GLAS, the new agri-environment measure introduced by my Department as part of the Rural Development Programme for the period 2014-2020, significant funding is available to farmers with areas identified for hen-harrier conservation actions. All such farmers are guaranteed priority access to the scheme under Tier 1 and can draw payment of €370 per hectare up to the scheme maximum of €5,000 per annum. In addition, all such farmers are guaranteed access to GLAS +, which offers a further €2,000 on top of the normal payment, if the area being managed is sufficiently large. Finally, I am also committed to introducing a separate scheme for hen harrier under the planned ‘locally-led’ measure, which will explore new ways of managing hen harrier habitat.
