Year four of the Hen Harrier Project saw a total of €4.3 million in payments made to just under 1,600 participants, according to the latest Annual Report for the project, covering the period May 2020 to April 2021.

The payments were made on just under 40,000ha under contract, with around 18,000 fields scored for payment and just under 3,000 actions approved.

The Hen Harrier Project now includes more than 70% of all special protected areas (SPA) – while over 23% of the total SPA network used for breeding hen harriers is farmed (the remainder of the SPA network under the programme is forested).

The report notes that the Covid-19 pandemic and the public health restrictions “had a very disruptive effect on programme operations”.

This included the inability to hold open days for farmers and moving to virtual platforms for advisor training.

There were 1,597 participants in the programme at the end of April 2021, not including a further 18 farmers who accepted contracts at the start of the summer.

The area farmed within the Hen Harrier Project at the end of April was 39,935ha. This consists of 33,878ha of privately owned land and 6,057ha of commonage. 73 of the participating farmers farm only commonage land within the programme and a further 211 farmers have both private land and commonage.

84% of participants are also in the Green, Low-Carbon Agri-Environment Scheme (GLAS).

Over 96% of participants were determined to be eligible for payment in year four of the scheme.

Payments under Hen Harrier Project

The payments under the Hen Harrier Project come in different forms.

The habitat payment makes up the bulk of payments. This funding was made to 1,548 farmers in respect of the 2020 breeding season. The payments were made in 11 batches from December 2020 to March 2021, coming to a total value of just under €3.57 million.

Penalties on payments for late submission of habitat assessments were waived in lght of the pandemic. Furthermore, no penalties were applied for failure to attend in-person training.

Supplementary payments amounting to €11,639 were made to 12 participants in the summer of 2021 to deal with a shortfall in the initial payment rounds.

There were no appeals or requests to review payments in the course of the year for habitat payments.

Supporting action payments were made from April 2020 to February 2021. Due to “increasing complexity” of this aspect of the programme, payments were halted in February until the necessary software upgrades were made. This process was completed in May and applications for funds resumed in June.

293 farmers received a combined €249,425 for supporting actions, 74 of whom exceeded their available allowance to the value of €37,084. Balancing payments of €25,727 were paid to address this. 21 farmers whose payments did not cover their actions will have this shortfall made good in 2022 payments.

Finally, the hen harrier payment itself (based on the presence of the birds) was made to 996 participants, amounting to €483,927 in total. The average hen harrier payment was €485, while 68 farmers received over €1,000.

Some €30,060 of participant funding is being held by the project and cannot be paid out at the present time for a variety of reasons. In some cases, this is because the participant has passed away.