Vol. 560 No. 1
235 Mr. Connaughton asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food if the destocking regulation would apply to four acres of land at Lougheraeragh, Glencolmcille, County Donegal, and also for a commonage at Lougheralark, Glencolmcille, County Donegal; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1450/03]
Under the 1998 agreement with the EU Commission, which secured generous REPS payments of up to €242 per hectare on commonages, my Department together with Dúchas undertook to have individual framework plans prepared for each commonage. It is not possible to exclude specific areas of commonage from this undertaking. Each commonage has been assessed by a team of two, one agriculturalist and one ecologist, under the overall supervision of the two Departments. The framework plans are objective scientific assessments of the environmental state of the commonages and the impact on them of grazing by sheep. The percentage destocking is directly related to the environmental condition of the commonage and this is reflected in the varying degrees of destocking required across different commonages.
In October 2002, farmers with commonage land were notified by my Department of their individual stocking levels for 2003 and were told that they had the following three options: to accept the recommended destocking, to have the Department's calculations checked by an agricultural consultant, or to opt out of using their commonage altogether and claim no area-based or REPS payments on it. Farmers who opt out of using their commonage will not be subject to the destocking recommendations, though they must follow any environmental requirements in the relevant framework plan.
