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Turf cut under turbary rights on commonage lands in the Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES) will be scored separately to non-turbary areas entered into the scheme.
This will mean that commonage farmers will not be at a disadvantage if they cut turf on areas where they are allowed to, Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture Pippa Hackett has suggested.
Minister Hackett’s clarification comes as the issue of turf cutting penalising ACRES payments in hill areas was raised by the Irish Nature and Hill Farmers’ Association (INHFA), which warned farmers may leave the scheme if penalised for turf cutting.
However, turf cutting on non-turbary areas of commonage will be penalised.
Disadvantaged
“The farmer should not be disadvantaged by cutting, but if the farmer is cutting on a non-turbary area, he or she will be disadvantaged by that, but that is because he or she is damaging the habitat and does not have the permission to do that,” the minister told Dáil Éireann this week.
“That is a welcome development. It also means turbary rights on commonages are unaffected if the shareholder wishes to proceed with that activity and he or she will not be penalised for that.
“In doing so, any scoring related to active turbary will be confined to those subunits of active turbary, thereby allowing the vast majority of commonage land to be assessed independently of turbary, where such rights exist.
“ACRES farmers will be paid in full for their combined score on non-turbary and turbary areas, subject to scheme ceilings.”
Not income support
Minister Hackett stated that ACRES has not been designed as an import support scheme, such as the Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS) scheme, and this is the reasoning behind the inclusion of results-based actions.
“It is important to say ACRES is not an income support scheme in the same way BISS and direct payments would be, but we want to see farmers rewarded for good work,” she said.
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