Vol. 498 No. 1
205 Cecilia Keaveney asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food the position in relation to an application under the REP scheme for a person (details supplied) in County Donegal; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26663/98]
The applicant's REPS application includes commonage land, and under the terms of the revised REP scheme a framework plan must be drawn up for each commonage. The framework plans will be prepared under the supervision of my Department and the Department of Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands. It will be some time before framework plans are available for all commonages.
Interim arrangements have been agreed between my Department and the Department of Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands to put a national commonage framework plan in place pending the completion of individual commonage framework plans. The national plan involves a destocking of mountain ewes equivalent to 30 per cent of the quota held in 1998 for flock holders who use commonage in six counties, including Donegal.
The revised REP scheme provides that farmers with commonage land who are already in the scheme or who join the scheme in the future can avail of the higher rates of compensation of £80 per acre for the first 100 acres with additional payments for the next 200 acres on the basis of the national framework plan and the other conditions of the revised scheme. It has been necessary to revise the scheme document and the agrienvironmental specifications to take account of the new measures. These, with application forms, will be available from my Department's farm development service offices shortly opening the way for the implementation of the revised REPS.
