It is a key requirement in the approval process of the Rural Development Plan that all proposed actions are verifiable and controllable and my Department’s online system for GLAS has been designed with this very much in mind. The different combinations of actions which are permitted together on the one parcel are already built into the system, which should significantly reduce error rates later, and resulting penalties for the farmer.
However, it is not true to say that a farmer cannot split a parcel when applying for GLAS. On the contrary, the online system includes a facility to split a parcel to deliver up to three area-based actions. By way of example, a 12 hectare parcel could be split to deliver a combination of Traditional Hay Meadow, Low Input Permanent Pasture and Wild Bird Cover, generating an annual payment of just under €5,000. The adviser can do this, online, on behalf of his or her client. Where a parcel is not split, one area based action may be selected together with certain linear actions provided no issue of double payment arises.
The application system is based on parcels declared in 2014 Single Payment Application and subsequently verified by my Department. Parcels being declared by a farmer for the first time in 2015 must be verified and this cannot be completed before the closing date for receipt of applications, 30 April 2015. If farmers wish to deliver GLAS actions on newly acquired parcels in 2015 it is open to them to apply under the next application Tranche.
