Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 19 June 2014
26. Deputy Éamon Ó Cuív asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the total number of applicants he expects to join the new GLAS 2014-2020 in the years 2015 to 2017, inclusive; the average payment he expects them to receive; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26115/14]
View answerGLAS (the Green Low-carbon Agri-environment Scheme) is part of a suite of proposed measures under the new Rural Development Programme (RDP). Prior to any roll-out of the scheme the RDP must be submitted to the European Commission for approval and I expect to be in a position to do this shortly. The European Union approval procedure will involve a detailed analysis of our proposals and will take a number of months.
GLAS is designed around core requirements which all applicants must satisfy. A tiered approach is being applied to entry into the Scheme and the tiers are based on a consideration of priority environmental assets and actions.
The proposed maximum payment is €5,000 per annum, with the Scheme building up to the inclusion of some 50,000 farmers with a total envisaged expenditure of €1,450m over the programming period. It is envisaged that the number of Scheme participants at the end of 2015 will be 25,000; at the end of 2016 will be 35,000 and at the end of 2017 will be 45,000 with the full complement of 50,000 being achieved in 2018. I expect most farmers to achieve the maximum payment under the Scheme.
It is also proposed that, within budget limits, a GLAS+ payment would be put in place for a limited number of farmers who take on particularly challenging actions which deliver an exceptional level of environmental benefit. It is proposed that this payment will be up to €2,000 per annum.
