About 15,000 farmers should benefit from increased payments under the revised Rural Environment Protection Scheme for the conservation of National Heritage Areas and Commonages.
The Minister for Agriculture and Food, Mr Walsh, announced yesterday the publication of the new specifications under the scheme, which he said would be delivered to Department offices at the weekend.
He said the objective of the new Supplementary Measure A (SMA) was to provide a comprehensive approach to the conservation or regeneration of designated target areas.
He said farmers holding lands in the designated target areas would have to follow obligations set out in the SMA, including reducing stocking levels, as a condition of joining REPS.
The Minister added that farmers who participated in the new measure and adhered to the conditions would receive generous compensation payments.
The areas involved, he said, were those in Natural Heritage areas proposed or designated by the Minister for Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands, or lands in Special Areas of Conservation or Special Protection Areas designated under the EU Birds Directive.
The levels of payments to be made to farmers who join either the REPS scheme or the scheme run by the Department of Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands had been greatly increased.
Farmers can expect to receive £77.13 an acre for the first 100 acres, £7.65 an acre for the next 99 acres, and £5.74 an acre between 201 and 300 acres.
The current payments being made to a farmer in the REPS scheme farming 80 acres in a Natural Heritage Area is £4,960 and this will increase to £6,170. The maximum NHA payment will increase from £6,200 to £9,052.
The Minister said the revised REPS scheme would provide sufficient compensation and support for most farmers in target areas.
More than 40,000 farmers are currently in receipt of REPS payments, which have amounted to £350 million since the scheme was first introduced in 1994.
Recently there have been a number of meetings of sheep farmers who farm in designated areas complaining about the reduction in the levels of stock on commonages and mountains.