Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 22 March 2016
212. Deputy Éamon Ó Cuív asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of farmers who have received payments under the green low-carbon agri-environment scheme, GLAS; the average payment and the percentage payment made to these farmers; if payments under the GLAS+ have been made to date; if not, when they will be paid; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5277/16]
View answerTo date some 21,000 GLAS Tranche 1 (GLAS 1) farmers have received a first instalment of their 2015 part year payment in respect of payable actions for the period 1 October to 31 December and representing up to 85% of the total amount due for 2015 part-year. The remainder of payments in respect of the 2015 part-year, including balancing payments and GLAS + payments for eligible applications are scheduled to be processed in May 2016 when all GLAS 2015 inspections have been completed.
It is important to note that these part-year payments are purely in respect of actions that were payable in 2015 and are not based on the full annual value of GLAS 1 contracts. In terms of the average value of payments it is not possible to establish this accurately until payment claims are submitted as part of the 2016 Basic Payment Scheme process and pre-payment validations are completed.
