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Approximately 2,200 donkeys are used to claim Area of Natural Constraint (ANC) payments every year, according to the Department of Agriculture.
Some 900 applicants use donkeys to receive payments, with a donkey counting as one livestock unit (LU).
ANC applicants must fulfil a stocking density of 0.15LU/ha and the Department stated that farmers can use cattle, sheep, goats, horses, donkeys and deer to fulfil their stocking density.
Farmers at an IFA meeting in Tralee last Thursday condemned the use of donkeys to satisfy stocking density requirements.
Some claimed donkeys were only used by “hobby farmers” and there was a collective call to ensure that they could not be used as a livestock unit in the next Common Agriculture Policy.
Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed previously said that 2,878 donkeys were used to claim payments under the scheme in 2016.
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