Nobody has ever explained to Kerry farmer Flor McCarthy how to farm designated land.

He farms lowland and hill land in Kerry and has designations on over 70% of his land.

“My farm has all of the designations – SAC, SPA and NHA – and no one ever explained it to me. I’ve raised this issue with the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) on numerous occasions.

“Nobody is telling me how I should farm that land.

“There are fierce restrictions with designated land. There are issues with planning. Your land is devalued – that’s a major issue, even for myself.

“The biggest issue with the designations is that I could lose my payments because of an action on that land.

“Another issue is that farmers can’t get an acre removed from the designations. If I wanted an off-farm enterprise, for tourism around here for example, I can’t get an acre taken out. I could do that on any other land,” he said, adding that farmers in these areas are producing a public good.

Payments

A lot of people just want a payment for owning land, not for farming it, McCarthy said.

“There are a lot of people who are drawing money from the hills – armchair farmers. That’s why money going to the hills needs to go to the farmers managing the hills,” he said.

He also said it needs to be feasible for young farmers to farm hill land and designated land. “We’re under threat in that way. In south Kerry, there are very few people under 50 farming.

“The reality is that they’ll look at it with a calculator and if there’s no money in it, they won’t do it.”

McCarthy said he can see land abandonment becoming an issue.

“It’s important that schemes keep people on the hills. If you leave the hills and trees and rhododendrons take over, it’s practically impossible to bring it back into productivity,” he said.