The agreement with the European Commission leading to the approval of supplementary measure A of the rural environment protection scheme provides for detailed commonage framework plans to be drawn up for all commonage land. These plans are being prepared under the supervision of my Department and the Department of Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands. The main aim of these plans will be to set sustainable stocking levels which will allow for the regeneration of damaged vegetation.
The preparation of the detailed commonage framework plans for every commonage is at an advanced stage and when these plans are implemented stocking rates will be set which will reflect the environmental needs of each commonage.
Pending the completion of the detailed framework plans for individual commonages, my Department and the Department of Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands have put in place an interim national commonage framework plan. The interim plan required destocking equivalent to 30% of mountain ewes from November-December 1998 for flockholders not already in the REP scheme who used commonage in the six western counties of Donegal, Leitrim, Sligo, Mayo, Galway and Kerry, where the overgrazing issue was deemed to be the most serious.