A public meeting will take place in Maam Cross tomorrow (Friday August 8 ) to discuss the proposed conservation measures affecting farmers in Connemara.
The meeting, held by the National Parks and Wildlife Service, will outline how new plans will affect farmers in the 12 Bens/Garraun and Maumturk mountain complex special area of conservation (SAC ).
Éamon ó Cuív, Minister for Community, Rural, and Gaeltacht Affairs welcomed the public meeting in Peacocke’s, Maam Cross, especially the concessions in relation to two points raised by him in relation to financial compensation. But Minister Ó Cuív has said he is disappointed that maximum destocking of sheep has not yet been agreed, and that he is in “Continuous discussions with officials from the Parks and Wildlife Service regarding the issue.”
“When the plans are prepared and each individual farmer has been informed of the way these plans will affect them, and if at this stage the plans leave any farmer with a flock that would be too small to farm viably in a hill situation, I will be pressing that they would be examined on a case by case basis.
“For traditional hill farmers using vast expanses of hill, it makes sense that a certain minimum threshold of stock would be left to each farmer so that it would be worth their while to continue to farm in an expansive way,” concluded Minister Ó CuÍv.
