Michael P. Kitt
Ceist:31 Mr. M. Kitt asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Forestry the current position regarding modifications of the REP scheme to benefit the corncrake conservation scheme. [9404/96]
Written Answers. - REP Scheme Modification.
The rural environment protection scheme, REPS, is a wide ranging scheme dealing with, inter alia, waste and grassland management and habitat retention and requires participant farmers to practice farming in an environmentally friendly manner for a period of five years.
Supplementary measure 1 under REPS deals with the conservation of proposed natural heritage areas, NHAs. This is a mandatory measure for REPS participants who have some or all of their lands in a proposed NHA. A top up payment of £30 per hectare, subject to a maximum of 40 hectares, is available to such farmers who follow guidelines for the conservation of the proposed NHA as prescribed by the National Parks and Wildlife Service, NPWS, of the Department of Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht. The areas in which the corncrake grant scheme operates are proposed NHA sites and, accordingly, the top up payment is available to farmers in these areas who comply with the NPWS requirements for the conservation of these sites.
REPS is, as I indicated, a wide ranging scheme and not a scheme designed to cater for individual wildlife species, such as the corncrake. The conservation of such species is the responsibility of the Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht who has provided an allocation of £64,000 for this purpose in 1996. Accordingly, I have no plans to modify REPS to cater for individual wildlife species.