Danny Healy-Rae warns GEC2 rules threaten Kerry farmers

Thank you very much. Minister, I want to discuss the implication of the new GEC2 rules that will farmers in Kerry will be affected, many farmers in many parts of Kerry. I want to ask you, farmers have been advised that they must recognise these new rules and regulations as part of applying for their BIS payments and other CAP payments on the 15th of May, which is tomorrow. And that's the first thing that I want to raise concern about, Minister, is that there was so little time, the letters only came out last week, and there's concerns about implications for opening new drains, shallow plowing, what implications it will have for planning permissions in the future, and again I want to ask clearly here, and I want an answer for that, can people still cut turf on the bog lands that they have to keep themselves, as they have traditionally done indeed our farm for over 200 years, we've been cutting turf to keep ourselves warm. Why is it that farmers are the only ones always being targeted or challenged about emissions? Why is it that the farmers in the Polish land areas of the country, indeed much of Kerry is being under scrutiny? Why wasn't this action carried out in a more transparent way? There was no proper discussions in this chamber. Members and farmers were not made aware until about two months ago, and that this was agreed over three years ago by the then minister and department officials and the IFA and other farming organisations. Maps have been issued to farmers already. Many are raising concerns with the correctness of what appeared to be on the very old maps. However, farmers have been advised that an appeal system will become available in due course. In the meantime, farmers will have to wait to be paid. Many have not received that 2,024 acres payments. It has to be remembered up here in Dublin and indeed in Dalyan that farmers in rural Ireland and rural communities and indeed in Kerry are the backbone of rural communities and indeed the backbone of the country. Indeed they have been and are still capable of producing top-class beef and lamb of poor fragmented farm holdings across all of South Kerry, South and East Kerry. From Guinea, Willenrat Moor, through Kilgavin, back into Khmer, down both sides of the Khmer River, through to Syst and back to Larrick, through Blackwater, Glencaisneam, Cahadanel and Cahsavine. Indeed the maps of Cahsavine, Khmer, Gotteclay and Castle Island Town are testament to the amount of windings and lamb that have been reared off the very marginal land between rocks and and and bogs in very small pockets of arable land in between. Indeed, dairy farmers in East Kerry from Kilguman, East to Borredu, Bratmoor, Guinea, Willen, Scotty, Linnan, Cotter, and Brosnan, Noctagossal, supply great quantities of milk from heavy and marginal type land. Great farmers who improved their lands and their actions and methods to make most out of what they have. Why don't they leave these farmers alone? Why hassle these grand people? What about the millions of jets flying overhead? Spaceships going into space? What about the bombs in Ukraine and Gaza over the last number of years? The letters have gone out to the owners of the poorest types of land in Ireland. Ireland is one of the smallest agricultural countries in the world. Indeed, if we all walked off this island, it would only mean a reduction of 0.13 per cent. It would only mean 1 per cent in the worldwide context of emissions. It won't change the climate or the weather either, but I'm happy to have the opportunity to reassure people that the concerns that are there that is misplaced, for a variety of reasons. But I can give the background to Gage II. It is a mandatory condition for the payment of the Basic Income Support for Sustainability for Farmers, or BIS as it is known, and that is the single farm payment where the application deadline is this week, as you have outlined. EU regulations require all Member States to have a standard in place from the start of this year. Up until this point, Ireland took the maximum flexibility allowed to delay the introduction of the standard until 2025. Many other Member States introduced it back in 2023, when we as a country signed up to this and said we would do it. A further deferral for 2025 was sought by Ireland, asking the European Commission for additional time. We received a very clear response from the European Commission that no further deferral would be approved. If I did not introduce this standard in 2025, Ireland would be in serious breach of EU regulations governing the CAP strategic plans, and this would have led to very significant fines that would have directly impacted my budget, the budget I have to support the very farmers you talk about all over Kerry. I could not let that happen. I could not let a fine come in that would have taken away money in a fine that I want to spend on supporting our farmers instead. The standard that has now been introduced for 2025 provides a baseline protection for carbon-rich soils, while allowing agricultural activity to continue. And that is a really important point here. Farmers' day-to-day activity in Kerry will not change, even if their land parcel is in gate 2. They can continue to farm as they have always done so in the past. In Ireland, their grass-based system already provides considerable protection for such soils, and they are also protected by existing national planning provisions, for example on drainage. Agricultural activity can continue, as I said, for example ploughing, reseeding, maintenance of existing drains is all still allowed. New drainage is also possible in line with existing national provisions which have been in place for many years. Therefore, this introduction of this standard is expected to have very minimal impact on farmers' day-to-day operations. Around a quarter of farmers, 35,000, which is approximately 540,000 hectares of peat soils, will have some land that is subject to the gate 2 element. In the main, these farmers will not need to take any new actions to comply with the standard. Gate 2 was subject to the final approval by the European Commission and it was adopted on the 30th of April 2025. I couldn't write to farmers with the maps with the exact detail until our proposal was approved by the European Commission. The European Commission accepted what was a very significant change from our perspective and what we wanted, so that we got measures in place to allow farmers to continue to farm as they do. The Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine has consulted with relevant stakeholders on a proposed standard, including farm bodies and environmental NGOs. We have chosen to use a clear, parcel-based approach based on well-understood maps as a fair way to ensure that we get the required protection in place and farmers have no uncertainty as to the requirements or where they apply. It is in all of our interests for farmers to have certainty. Once approval of the standard was received from the Commission, my Department published a technical note with detailed information on the standard to the media so it will be out there in the Farmers' Journal and Agri-Land and everywhere else. The Department also provided direct information to Farm Advisory Services and had meetings with the Public and Private Advisory Services to ensure the requirements are fully understood. A detailed map layer has been available on the application system for all farmers to review since before BIS applications opened. My Department has written to every farmer that has at least one parcel identified as GIG2 with a map and further information on the requirements. Farmers have been receiving these letters since last week and I would still encourage farmers to check the map on the system and engage with the Farm Advisory Service advisors. Department officials continue to attend local meetings around the issue to help explain the conditionality requirements to farmers and to reassure them that there is not the concerns that you have raised there. The key point I wish to reiterate is that for most and the vast, vast majority of farmers this will have no impact on their day-to-day operations. I understand the concerns raised around the timing but my Department is engaging directly with Farmers and the Advisory Service. In conclusion, there was no opportunity in further delaying the introduction of GIG2. It is not legally possible to delay its introduction and failure to implement the standard would result in significant financial penalties which I, as a Minister, could not stand over. Deputy Danny Heater-Rae. Minister, thank you for your answer and I suppose the first thing I still have to ask you again is please give me a clear understanding. Can farmers who have lands in Laira Compagnon, Kassar, Wien, Kilkommun, Guinea-Willer, all those places, Scotland, can they have parcels of peat? That's a straight question, I want a straight answer to that. Farmers are very concerned about this, as I said to you, the link to the time they have to get their payments in and have this sorted out and gone through properly because, as I said to you, they are doubting the correctness of some of the maps that some of the people have got and they need time for that and if they have to get an extension of time till the end of the month so be it to get their applications in and I'm asking to ensure that no one is left out because are wrong because that an application won't be deemed as complete when they have so little time. You have to recognise that, Minister. This is another regulation placed on these farmers and while it is the thin edge of the wedge, the wedge widens as it goes down and that's what farmers are afraid of. Will it affect them getting planning permission for sheds and different things on their lands down the line? We need answers to that and they are worried about things like that. Indeed, the department has already 27,000 acres of national park in Kerry that they can properly manage, road or way out of control, deals roaming the roads and causing havoc and buying up more land, which they have been doing in Kilgarden and other places in Beaufort in the last 12 months, competing against active farmers. Again, I say too that this action or this new standard will take more time than what they have. Tomorrow is the 15th of May which applications have to be in tomorrow, Minister. I'm asking you to give some leeway so that farmers will have a correct application in and again, I'm asking you to make it clear, can farmers cut turf as they have traditionally, don't like ourselves, a bogan rake a slag for the last 200 years? Thank you Deputy. Minister. Again, thank Deputy Healy Ray for the points he's raised here. In relation to the point around more time, the deadline for the BIS to get applications in very clearly is the 15th of May. If I was to push that back, if I was to look to extend that in any way, that has a knock-on impact on the whole system in place to get payments in place. We had delays in payments previously, we're back on track in terms of making sure we can get the ANC payments and farmers single farm payments and the BIS payments and everything out on time and early as we traditionally always did. I don't want to interfere with that and there is no need to here in relation to Gage 2. The most important thing is that farmers whose land parcel comes in under this are aware of that. They have the map now to tell them that. It always was the case if you were applying, if you were looking to lay new drainage in land with peat in it, therefore that would require, that's a planning permission requirement. That's the only planning requirement. In relation to your concerns around planning permission, the only people who know their land parcel is engaged to is the farmer and the Department of Agriculture. It's not published publicly anywhere. The local authority does not know what land is Gage 2 or is not Gage 2. So any farmer who's looking to apply for planning permission for a shed or for a house, let's say, the normal rules apply. You do your tea test in the ground to see if the ground has peat in it or not, and that will determine whether you're approved for a septic tank in that ground. That does not change. The local authority won't know where you're applying for whether it's Gage 2 land or not. Obviously, if there's peat in the soil, I don't know about Kerry, but in Kildare you won't get planner permission for it. But if it's mineral soils, you will. That won't be the reason you won't get it. So the areas of turf cutting, you asked that direct question, is ineligible for BIS payments. So there is no change. This Gage 2 is only a baseline requirement for BIS, for the single farm payment. If you're not applying for a single farm payment, which you can't on areas where you're cutting turf, this doesn't apply. So all of the scaremongering, all of the concern, I'm not saying you're scaremongering, but others are, all of the misinformation that's out there around nature restoration, around designations, around planning permissions, in no way applies to Gage 2. So I give you an assurance that this time next year, you won't have farmers in Kerry coming to me who have fallen foul of this, that I've received penalties because their day-to-day activity does not change and the requirements that they have to comply with have existed in legislation long before today. Thank you Minister. Do they have to leave out the patch by putting the turf? No, the patch which they're cutting turf would never qualify for BIS anyway, so they're not going to be applying. The issue is finished now Minister, but perhaps you might come back to the Deputy privately on that. Thank you.