Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 3 April 2019
189. Deputy Charlie McConalogue asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of farmers participating in the GLAS scheme who have planted land with wild bird cover that previously had designated ANC land that are no longer eligible under the terms and conditions of the 2019 ANC scheme (details supplied). [15677/19]
View answerFrom 2019, eligible areas under the Areas of Natural Constraints (ANC) scheme must be designated using a set of bio-physical criteria such as excess soil moisture, limited soil drainage, unfavourable texture and stoniness, shallow rooting depth, steep slope. Under the EU regulations requiring this process to be carried out, Member States had to also undertake a fine-tuning exercise, based on objective criteria.
This fine-tuning exercise served to identify areas which were deemed to have met the thresholds for the biophysical criteria but in which the “significant natural constraints” had been overcome by investments, economic activity, normal land productivity, production methods or farming systems. Areas that were fine-tuned, were no longer eligible for payment under the 2019 ANC Scheme unless they met subsequent criteria to qualify as Areas of Specific Constraint. In Ireland this fine-tuning process was undertaken by reference to stocking density levels and levels of arable land.
Wild Bird Cover remains eligible for payment under the 2019 ANC scheme. However, such areas have been correctly classified as arable land for the purposes of the fine-tuning exercise. My Department’s records indicate that only one townland has been fine-tuned out due to the inclusion of Wild Bird Cover leading to the fine-tuning thresholds being exceeded.
