GLAS Applications

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 20 October 2015

Tuesday, 20 October 2015

Questions (315)

Charlie McConalogue

Question:

315. Deputy Charlie McConalogue asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of applications he has received under tranche 1 of the green low-carbon agri-environment scheme; the average expected payment for those who have applied; the amount of the initial funding allocation, that will be required to cover the total payments for those who applied under tranche 1; that will be left unspent; his plans for any unspent funds; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36326/15]

Written answers

Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine

A total of 26,935 applications were submitted to my Department under tranche 1 of the GLAS scheme. Until we have full pre-payment validations on area committed and lengths involved in linear actions such as hedgerows, it is not possible to know exactly what individual payments will come to. However, I have included €20m in the 2015 estimates for GLAS payments this year, and I expect this to be fully utilised.