Land Issues

Tuesday, 17 September 2019

Questions (528)

Charlie McConalogue

Question:

528. Deputy Charlie McConalogue asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the estimated quantity of land in hectares nationally and by county that is not eligible for current CAP pillar 1 payments which is high in biodiversity and that his Department has indicated to the European Court of Auditors should be eligible for pillar 2 payments under the Rural Development Programme per an article (details supplied) in tabular form. [37720/19]

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Written answers

Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine

The data requested by the Deputy is currently being compiled, and will be forwarded directly to the Deputy as soon as this has been completed.

The following deferred reply was received under Standing Order 42A

The following table is based on the land declared by farmers and subsequently held on the Department's Land Parcel Identification System. For each county, the number of hectares relates to the area of land that is not eligible for the Basic Payment Scheme under the current land eligibility rules as set out in the relevant EU regulations. It should be noted that these areas of land can be declared or deemed as ineligible for a wide variety of reasons. For example, included in the figures are areas relating to scrub, roads and buildings, recreational areas, streams etc.

The draft regulations for the new CAP post 2020 are currently under consideration at EU level, and my officials continue to engage proactively in this process. As part of these discussions, my officials have expressed Ireland's view that land eligibility rules across direct payment and rural development measures should be framed in a consistent manner which would enable the maximum level of environmental, climate related and biodiversity benefits to be delivered under schemes in the next round of the CAP.

County	Hectares	County	Hectares
Carlow	1866.01	Offaly	3762.47
Cavan	5787.75	Roscommon	5527.41
Clare	21127.7	Sligo	5795.69
Donegal	15985.13	Waterford	4640.2
Dublin	1025.84	Wexford	3507.04
Galway	23902.96	Wicklow	4876.43
Kerry	16857.32	Louth	1458.75
Kildare	2139.44	Tipperary	9195.98
Kilkenny	4255.2	Westmeath	3741.56
Laois	3168.44	Mayo	17436
Leitrim	14995.04	Meath	3090.48
Limerick	6802.68	Monaghan	4005.76
Longford	2270.44	Cork	26023.66