Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 15 October 2014
52. Deputy Martin Ferris asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the way he will meet his stated target of 30,000 applicants accepted into GLAS in 2015, in view of the fact that his Department has stipulated that only those in Tier One, may participate in year one and the majority of Irish farmers fall into the Tier Two category. [39476/14]
Amharc ar fhreagraAll GLAS applications received (Tier One, Tier Two and Tier Three) by the closing date in 2015 will be put through a series of eligibility checks and all eligible applications will then be scored and ranked in order of merit. I am providing for up to 30,000 farmers to join GLAS in 2015 and envisage that the bulk of these will be drawn from Tier One. The estimated potential pool of farmers falling within Tier One is 25-30,000 but, as GLAS is a voluntary scheme, the actual number of applications received may also allow for farmers under Tier Two to be approved into the scheme in the first year.
