The Irish Natura and Hill Farmers Association (INHFA) has called on the Department of Agriculture to allow farmers to demarcate the boundary between peat and mineral soils to ensure that new GAEC 2 rules for peat soils are not applied to more lands than necessary.
The INHFA said this would avoid the peatland protection standards announced as the Basic Income Support for Sustainability Scheme (BISS) opened for 2025 applications unnecessarily covering mineral soils in mixed peat-mineral parcels.
Around 100,000ha of mineral soils will be subject to GAEC 2, despite the conditions’ intention of protecting just peat, as if a parcel is more than 50% covered by peat soils, the entire parcel will be subject to GAEC 2 under the currently proposed system put forward by the Department.
“The principle bone of contention with the Irish proposal is the implementation of the GAEC2 standard at full Land Parcel Identification System (LPIS) parcel level,” the group’s president Vince Roddy stated.
“None of the other eight GAEC standards are required to be implemented in this way.”
Commission meeting
The comments come as Roddy and former association president Colm O’Donnell travelled to Brussels to meet with European Commission officials in meetings organised by Midlands-Northwest MEP Luke Ming Flanagan.
“It was established and conceded by the Commission officials that mapping of GAEC 2 full LPIS parcels was not a legal requirement and that mineral soils were not required to be included as part of a standard designed for wetlands and peatlands.”
Roddy said that the INHFA accepts that Department monitoring is administered at LPIS level, but pointed to the ‘red-lining out’ of features in other controls as an example of a workaround that could be found for GAEC 2.
He added that the association had previously lodged a formal objection to Ireland’s GAEC 2 proposals with both the Commission and the Department’s CAP strategic plan monitoring committee.
Read more
Minister insists GAEC 2 is ‘not something that will be in place forever’
GAEC 2 land parcels can be redrawn
Step-by-step guide: how to check if your land is a GAEC 2 peat soil
Farmers in GAEC 2 will continue ‘normal agricultural activity’ - Heydon
Appeals process for GAEC 2 peat soils
The Irish Natura and Hill Farmers Association (INHFA) has called on the Department of Agriculture to allow farmers to demarcate the boundary between peat and mineral soils to ensure that new GAEC 2 rules for peat soils are not applied to more lands than necessary.
The INHFA said this would avoid the peatland protection standards announced as the Basic Income Support for Sustainability Scheme (BISS) opened for 2025 applications unnecessarily covering mineral soils in mixed peat-mineral parcels.
Around 100,000ha of mineral soils will be subject to GAEC 2, despite the conditions’ intention of protecting just peat, as if a parcel is more than 50% covered by peat soils, the entire parcel will be subject to GAEC 2 under the currently proposed system put forward by the Department.
“The principle bone of contention with the Irish proposal is the implementation of the GAEC2 standard at full Land Parcel Identification System (LPIS) parcel level,” the group’s president Vince Roddy stated.
“None of the other eight GAEC standards are required to be implemented in this way.”
Commission meeting
The comments come as Roddy and former association president Colm O’Donnell travelled to Brussels to meet with European Commission officials in meetings organised by Midlands-Northwest MEP Luke Ming Flanagan.
“It was established and conceded by the Commission officials that mapping of GAEC 2 full LPIS parcels was not a legal requirement and that mineral soils were not required to be included as part of a standard designed for wetlands and peatlands.”
Roddy said that the INHFA accepts that Department monitoring is administered at LPIS level, but pointed to the ‘red-lining out’ of features in other controls as an example of a workaround that could be found for GAEC 2.
He added that the association had previously lodged a formal objection to Ireland’s GAEC 2 proposals with both the Commission and the Department’s CAP strategic plan monitoring committee.
Read more
Minister insists GAEC 2 is ‘not something that will be in place forever’
GAEC 2 land parcels can be redrawn
Step-by-step guide: how to check if your land is a GAEC 2 peat soil
Farmers in GAEC 2 will continue ‘normal agricultural activity’ - Heydon
Appeals process for GAEC 2 peat soils
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