The Department of Agriculture does not know the extent of any under-grazing on commonage, Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney said this week.

The Department has not carried out a dedicated exercise to establish the areas under-grazed, Minister Coveney wrote in a letter to Fianna Fáil TD Éamon Ó Cuív.

The issue is sensitive because some rules in the proposed new GLAS were introduced to counter under-grazing, including minimum stocking rate and the collective agreement among shareholders. In addition, there is disagreement about the reasons for any under-grazing that might exist.

This week, Minister Coveney wrote that since the introduction of decoupling under the Single Farm Payment scheme, farming activity on commonage has continued to decrease.

“This has led to a situation where there is an increase in the areas ineligible for payment because of ineligibility and inactivity,” he wrote.

However, Deputy Ó Cuív this week countered that the fall in sheep numbers on the hills was due to enforced de-stocking by the Department of Agriculture.

“It’s not due to unwillingness by farmers to bring sheep up on to the hills. They want to put sheep on the hills. Land in all parts of the country had been declared ineligible for Single Farm Payment, not just commonage,” Ó Cuív said.

“That includes enclosed land and lowland. And where commonage has been found to be ineligible, it’s usually because of rock outcrop or because it’s blanket bog.”

Ó Cuív said he had failed repeatedly to get answers from the Department and then from Minister Coveney on how much commonage was under-grazed. It took the intervention of Ceann Comhairle Sean Barrett to force the minister to answer the question this week, he said.