GLAS Eligibility

Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 7 December 2016

Wednesday, 7 December 2016

Questions (243)

Michael Fitzmaurice

Question:

243. Deputy Michael Fitzmaurice asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if his attention has been drawn to the situation on commonages whereby under GLAS 3 a person has to have made an application in 2014 for those lands under BPS and ANC to qualify; and his views on whether this is fair, when, if a person farms prove hill or lowland this does not apply to 2014 and in fact if a person has made application in 2016 to lowland or hill private lands, they qualify. [38991/16]

Written answers

Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine

The commonage eligibility requirements for GLAS 3 applications have been updated from those which applied in GLAS 1 and GLAS 2.  For GLAS 3 commonage land declared for the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) in 2015 whether declared in previous years or not is eligible for the Scheme. This update was notified to all GLAS advisors and also published the circular on the Department’s website. 

In addition new entrants to farming in 2016 who declared commonage in their first BPS application in 2016 will also qualify.  Farmers with commonage receive priority access to the GLAS Scheme. 

Farmers with privately owned hill or lowland are not automatically afforded priority access to the scheme unless they have a Priority Environmental Asset (PEA) on their holding.