Vol. 488 No. 5
26 Mr. Gilmore asked the Minister for Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands the steps, if any, she intends to take to address the damage done to plants, birds and wildlife by overgrazing of upland areas; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [6437/98]
The EU habitats directive requires member states to designate their most important natural areas as special areas of conservation, of SACs, and to prevent anything that would damage their ecology. Their directive identifies active blanket bog, which includes large areas of our uplands, as a priority for such protection. Some 200,000 hectares of blanket bog have been proposed for inclusion in Ireland's SAC network.
Land in such areas, and in other areas classified as overgrazed by the Department of Agriculture and Food, will be required to be farmed in accordance with an approved agri-environmental protection plan. For those who join the rural environmental protection scheme, which is administered by the Department of Agriculture and Food, this will be the REP scheme. For those who decide not to join REPS, a plan will be prepared by my Department.
These plans will specify conditions or restrictions that must be complied with to protect the ecology of the proposed SAC in question, including any stocking restrictions or reductions needed to prevent damage by overgrazing. For commonages, which tend to be the most damaged areas, each individual farm plan impacting on the commonage will have to comply with an overall commonage plan, which will specify the overall maximum sustainable stock numbers that the land can carry. These commonage plans will be arranged by my Department. In addition, I understand from my colleague, the Minister for Agriculture and Food, Deputy Walsh, that the payment of headage and premia has been made conditional on compliance with such agri-environmental plans for farmers who have shares in commonages within proposed SACs in areas designated as overgrazed.
