€370/ha in GLAS for hen harrier lands
To earn the payment, of up to €7,000 per year, about 3,500 farmers whose lands were designated must put in place a basic GLAS plan which recognises the designation restriction applying to their land.
Until now, fewer than 400 farmers affected by hen harrier land designations got any form of payment or compensation, out of 4,000 farmers affected by designations.
“We could be spending somewhere between €25 million and €28m on the consequences of hen harrier designation in terms of a payment that recognises the restrictions on farmers and therefore the reduced capacity for income from their farmland,” said Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney.
“We could not get agreement on a higher payment than €7,000. We are doing what we can to recognise the hen harrier designation issue, which is significantly more than was done in the past, and this will represent a significant chunk of the overall GLAS provision.
"If we were to do any more, other farmers who want to access GLAS would have a big difficulty with it.”
