Dáil Éireann Debate, Friday - 16 December 2016
430. Deputy Éamon Ó Cuív asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the reason farmers who submitted a commonage share for the first time in the 2016 BPS application are being excluded from gaining access to tier 1 of GLAS 3; the reason these commonage shares are not payable under the GLAS scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40568/16]
View answerThe commonage requirements applicants to the GLAS Scheme are set out Department circular 8/2015 and are as follows:
Eligible Applicants
- Must be an active farmer;
- Must have submitted an SPS claim for his or her commonage share in 2014 and continue to do so for each year of the GLAS contract. Rented land is eligible if it was declared in the applicant’s name in 2014;
- With the exception of new entrants to farming, the acquisition or declaration of a share in subsequent years will not confer Tier 1 access, and it not eligible for payment under GLAS;
- Must have submitted a GLAS application on their green-land by the Scheme closing date.
However, in respect of the third tranche of GLAS (GLAS 3) and in recognition of the fact that 2015 was the baseline year for the establishment of entitlements under CAP Pillar 1 the provisions of Circular 8/2015 were amended to state that commonage land declared under the herd number in BPS 2015 whether declared in previous years or not is eligible.
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.
