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The designation of land for hen harrier conservation has had a hugely detrimental impact on land valuation, an Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture was told on Tuesday.
John Fitzgerald from Irish Farmers with Designated Land (IFDL) told the committee that "the designation of land is costing farmers hundreds of millions", as it restricts land use and prevents farmers from pursuing more profitable ventures, such as forestry.
€4,700/ha gap
According to Fitzgerald, farmers with designated hen harrier land were only making around €800/ha a year, whereas a farmer with a similar soil type with land under forestry could make up to €5,500/ha.
Under the current rules, the planting of forestry is prohibited in areas designated for the conservation of hen harriers as there are fears that this will have a detrimental impact on the endangered bird's habitat.
Last December, Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed opened a new Hen Harrier Programme, with €25m in support. However, programme manager Fergal Monaghan told the committee that there were only around 1,100 places available in the new scheme, which falls short of providing all of the estimated 4,000 farmers working on designated land with funding.
The Hen Harrier Programme team announced on Tuesday that it had accepted the first 80 farmers into the scheme.
The first 80 farmers have been selected for the Hen Harrier Programme from the expressions of interest submitted in December. Around 80 farmers will be selected every month for at least a year. Hope to have first signed contracts returned in Feb :)
— Hen Harrier Project (@HenHarrierProj) January 30, 2018
Fitzgerald was joined by a number of TDs in his call to review the current restrictive land designation, including Fianna Fáil TD for Tipperary, Jackie Cahill.
“I’ve never seen a scheme that reduced the capital value of an asset…we have to go back to the drawing board,” said Cahill.
The TD also called for the blanket ban on forestry in designated hen harrier land to be removed, based on evidence heard at the committee that it did not have a negative impact on the habitat area.
Cahill also criticised attending Department of Agriculture officials for basing the success of the scheme on the number of people that applied to enter it.
“To measure it by the amount of people that apply for it is something that I don’t want to hear again because the hen harrier farmers are applying out of desperation,” he said.
Department
The assistant secretary general in charge of the Rural Development Programme (RDP) in the Department, Colm Hayes, told the committee that it was possible for farmers on designated land to make a return from the land.
Hayes informed the committee that a farmer with 40ha can earn up to €6,000 a year on top of other schemes such as GLAS, and stated that the new pilot scheme has received over 1,000 applicants.
He also stated that schemes such as the pilot programme were likely to be used as a benchmark in the future as the RDP became more focused on results-based projects.
Listen: Hen Harrier Programme opens
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