The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Simon Coveney TD, announced today that all members of the new Commonage Implementation Committee have now been appointed and the Committee will announce its first meeting date shortly.

The Committee is chaired by Joe Healy, a livestock farmer from Galway and former President of Macra na Feirme, and former Chairman of Athenry Mart. He will be assisted by two senior Department officials with specific experience in this field and two technical experts, one from the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht and one from Teagasc. Also appointed to the Committee is Andy McGarrigle, former Head of the Department’s SPS Entitlement Division, who retired earlier this year. 

The new Committee has two main terms of reference:

• To examine cases where there is disagreement by shareholders over proposed minimum/maximum stocking levels for commonages; 
• To assist with instances where difficulties emerge in securing the necessary 50% agreement amongst active shareholders for participation in the new GLAS agri-environmental scheme

Commenting today, Minister Coveney said that his priority had been to get this Committee up-and running without delay. “I am very aware of the concern amongst commonage shareholders about these new proposals and I want to ensure that we iron-out any remaining issues in good time, with an eye to next year’s Single Farm Payment and applications for the new GLAS scheme. I believe this new Committee will play a key role in resolving specific issues at individual commonage level.”

View Press Release as a PDF: DAFMPR 114/2014 (pdf 118Kb) 

Date Released: 30 July 2014