Analysis of 2012 LPIS data showing commonages and Herd No.'s declaring commonage shares.
County Area Ref Area No. Herd % of Dormancy
of No's Commonage Rate
Commonage with claimed
Land Parcels Commonage
Carlow 2550.90 2417.58 35 183 66.04 33.96
Cavan 4804.44 4708.52 67 137 55.67 44.33
Clare 5040.61 4412.51 190 376 70.65 29.35
Cork 20100.09 17466.26 552 909 68.92 31.08
Donegal 74559.86 70729.13 1278 2571 63.62 26.38
Dublin 2320.07 2273.91 11 40 40.66 59.34
Galway 67670.65 61413.00 1389 2713 59.63 40.37
Kerry. 65462.76 60793.98 843 1935 71.26 28.74
Kildare 1586.48 1292.59 13 35 53.76 46.24
Kilkenny 538.65 517.06 9 33 87.68 12.32
Laois 1898.33 1130.25 31 97 44.59 55.41
Leitrim 12701.55 12561.77 172 484 68.23 31.77
Limerick 2235.26 2178.56 26 65 42.71 57.29
Longford 401.79 371.86 23 60 72.37 27.63
Louth 2901.01 2775.21 27 153 35.81 64.19
Mayo 107743.37 103712.59 1431 3297 62.33 37.67
Meath. 96.49 93.40 4 12 38.96 61.04
Monaghan. 14.11 0.90 2 2 1.96 98.04
Offaly 407.68 342.81 23 37 64.14 35.86
Roscommon 1393.89 1308.61 86 151 53.49 44.51
Sligo 12779.36 12218.45 207 454 69.43 30.57
Tipperary 11714.23 11257.31 131 319 70.48 29.52
Waterford 9418.01 9236.48 63 181 65.26 34.74
Westmeath 165.61 93.55 12 22 63.32 26.68
Wexford 2758.77 2625.55 31 108 60.24 39.76
Wicklow 24714.36 24255.76 137 341 50.72 49.28
TOTAL 435978.32 410187.60 6793 14632 63.30 36.70
Adapted from NPWS Submission on CAP reform May 2013.
The table above shows the area of commonage in each county along with the number of
shareholders declaring commonage shares in 2012. Interestingly this table gives us
detailed information on the % of commonage land claimed and this allows us to determine
the extent of dormant shares on a county basis. We can see that the National Average of 63.3%
of commonage area claimed in 2012 masks a large variation from county to county. Of the
main commonage counties the % claimed was as low as 50.72% in Wicklow rising to a high of
71.26% in Kerry.
This analysis suggests that the dormancy rate on a national level is 36.7%.
Leaving aside Monaghan where the very small areas involved contribute to an atypical dormancy rate the county with the highest dormancy rate is Louth with 64.19% of commonage land unclaimed. Considering the large amount of commonage land particularly in the Cooley peninsula this is surprising and will be locally problematic. At the other end of the spectrum the dormancy rate in Kilkenny is 12.32% and in Kerry, an important commonage county it is only 28.74%.
Obviously within each county there would also be considerable variation as the usage pattern
on each commonage would vary. What is clear however is that the dormancy issue will be a
significant factor in developing commonage management structures throughout the country.
This requires clarification on how the qualified majority required for setting up a grazing
association can be met. If the 80% referred to in the draft proposals refers to total shareholders
then we have a big problem, as no county has 80% or more shares declared. If the qualified majority
is 80% of the shareholders declaring commonage on their SPS return then this issue is eased somewhat.
The Dept. of Agriculture should clarify not only how the qualified majority is to be calculated but
also how farmers on commonages with large dormancy rates are going to be compensated for the extra
difficulties that they face. In particular how shareholders who are required to maintain all of the
area in GAEC, yet between them may only be eligible for payments on 60% or less of the reference area.
Surely there is a case here for making these farmers eligible for GLAS+ payments.
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