Dáil Éireann Debate, Friday - 16 December 2016
448. Deputy Charlie McConalogue asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine whether priority access is being provided to approximately 2,000 farmers who did not get into GLAS 2 in view of the fact the previous Minister gave a commitment to the effect that those persons would receive priority; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40879/16]
View answerThe level of interest in the second tranche of GLAS (GLAS 2) resulted in those applications with the highest environmental priorities and actions in Tier 1 and Tier 2 being selected into the Scheme.
In respect of the third tranche of GLAS (GLAS 3) selection into the Scheme will depend on the level of applications received within the funding available for the Scheme. The same criteria for priority access to the Scheme as applied in previous tranches will be applied for GLAS 3 whereby Tier 1 will receive priority access to the Scheme, followed by Tier 2 and followed in turn by Tier 3. This is as set out in the Scheme Terms and Conditions.
Farmers are therefore encouraged to present the highest standard of environmental plan under GLAS 3 and, where possible, to adopt actions that would promote them from Tier 3 to increase their chance of selection into the Scheme.
