Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 13 December 2018
177. Deputy Sean Fleming asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if consideration will be given to ensuring that under the appeals process for the new areas that have been listed as eligible under the area of natural constraints that an island application can be considered and not one that is already contiguous in an existing ANC and can be facilitated; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [52624/18]
View answer179. Deputy Sean Fleming asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine his plans on the new areas to be considered eligible under area of natural constraints in relation to examining areas under the appeals system for new areas to be considered eligible under the area of natural constraints; his further plans to consider special areas of conservation in well documented flood plains to be the criteria for such inclusion rather than official man-made boundaries in respect of townlands and district electoral divisions which were made decades or centuries ago and which have no basis for areas of natural constraints or special areas of conservation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [52653/18]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 177 and 179 together.
Under the current Rural Development Regulation (and subsequent amendments under the Omnibus Regulation) Member States are required to change the approach to the designation of land under the Areas of Natural Constraints Scheme. To date my Department had been identifying eligible areas using a range of socio-economic indicators such as family farm income, population density, percentage of working population engaged in agriculture, and stocking density.
From 2019, eligible areas must instead be designated using the following list of bio-physical criteria:
- Low temperature
- Dryness
- Excess soil moisture
- Limited soil drainage
- Unfavourable texture and stoniness
- Shallow rooting depth
- Poor chemical properties
- Steep slope
It is a requirement of EU regulations that "compliance with those conditions shall be ensured at the level of local administrative units (LAU 2 level)". In line with this requirement, designation was completed at townland level. In addition, the condition of proximity or the contiguous nature of a townland with reference to other eligible townlands is not set out in the relevant EU Regulation as a criterion for eligibility.
The designation process has now been completed and in recent weeks I have published details in relation to the outcome and have completed a series of consultation meetings with key stakeholders.
An independent appeals process is now in place for any farmers who wish to appeal the status of a particular townland following this process. Farmers who hold land in townlands that are no longer eligible in 2019 are being written to, and included in this letter is an application form to begin the process of an appeal should they wish to take up this option. This form is also available on the Department's website. The appeals committee is chaired independently, and also has an independent technical expert.
