Commonage farmers who are part of the new Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES) should not be “disadvantaged” because of active turf cutting, Minister of State, Pippa Hackett has said.
But the Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM), has also warned that if a farmer is “cutting on a non-turbary area, he or she will be disadvantaged by that, but that is because he or she is damaging the habitat”.
Under ACRES there is a set payment per hectare for commonages of 10ha or less.
Sinn Féin TD for Mayo, Rose Conway-Walsh, told the minister in the Dáil last night (Tuesday, May 16) that many people in Co. Mayo are currently waiting to cut their turf because they are unsure of how it could impact on ACRES payments.
Deputy Conway-Walsh said the key issue in relation to ACRES was the scoring of mountain land, “where active turf cutting means all farmers on that commonage will lose marks, even if the turf cutter with the turbary rights is not one of those farmers”.
“The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine is advising that active turf cutting on parcels of land will lead to a reduction of 30% in the scoring,” she added.
“Most commonage lands will have active turf cutting taking place and this 30% reduction for shareholders will see a drastic reduction in payments for individual farmers.”
Deputy Conway-Walsh said communities were “experiencing significant anxiety” at this time about whether they can cut turf on their bogs.
In response, Minister Hackett told the Dáil that ACRES “does not prohibit any activity on commonages” and that she appreciated the “rights of farmers to cut turf”.
“The approach in ACRES for commonage is for results-based payments so the payment rate relates to the quality of habitat using a range of criteria assessing the ecological and hydrological integrity of the commonage and various damaging activities,” she added.
But Minister Hackett also warned that DAFM and co-operation teams were conscious that “active turf cutting could have a disproportionate impact on scores on commonage”.
“To ensure ACRES participants on commonage lands are rewarded for their environmental ambition, we are now proposing that non-turbary and turbary areas are scored independently of each other,” she added.
Minister Hackett also outlined to the Dáil that “where turf cutting is allowed, that will be taken off the overall score”.
She said in relation to ACRES that any scoring specific “to active turbary will be confined to those subunits of active turbary”.
MInister Hackett said this would allow the “vast majority of commonage land to be assessed independently of turbary, where such rights exist”.
“ACRES farmers will be paid in full for their combined score on non-turbary and turbary areas, subject to scheme ceilings,” she added.