Sheep Fencing of Hills Relaxed

In response to a parliamentary question raised by Senator Brian O Domhaill the Seanad spokesman for Agriculture for Fianna Fail the Minister of Agriculture Simon Coveney has said that if hill land is owned and is continued to be fenced in the traditional manner by hill farmers  these hills would not need to be fenced in order for them to be compliant for payments as long as other general compliance measures are met.

This is a great relief for genuine hill farmers who were coming under pressure to fence all their hills in order to be compliant and which Brian O Domahaill said “it had the potential to put small hill farmers out of business”.