Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 14 May 2015
1. Deputy Éamon Ó Cuív asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the progress made in the roll-out of the green low carbon agri-environment scheme; the number of completed applications likely to be received by the closing date of 22 May 2015; the likely commencement date for the scheme in 2015; the projected spending on the scheme by his Department this year; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18720/15]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs the Minister will admit, as far as he is concerned, GLAS is a flagship scheme. People are anxious to find out how many completed applications have been submitted for the scheme. Now that the Minister has announced GLAS for 2016, farmers are curious to learn the date from which they will be able to participate. What is the effect of the change in the rule to require applicants to obtain 16.3 points to access tier 3? How many completed applications has the Department received as a result of this change?
I thank the Deputy for giving me an opportunity to clarify this issue. GLAS is a large, flagship scheme which has been open for some time and for which the deadline for the receipt of applications is one week from now.
Following successful negotiations with the European Commission, I opened the GLAS online application system on 23 February for the preparation of applications, with the intention of activating the submit facility once formal approval of the rural development programme as a whole had been notified. Approval has since been received in the form of a letter of comfort from the Commission. The submit facility was activated last week and applications can now be formally submitted.
The initial response to GLAS is positive and I am pleased to note that, as of this morning, 29,406 applications had been created on the GLAS online application system. Of this number, more than 20,000 applicants selected actions and are, therefore, well on the way to submitting a completed application. This is a remarkable achievement by all involved, including farmers, planners and the departmental officials working to implement to scheme.
On the basis of progress to date, I anticipate that in the region of 25,000 completed applications will be submitted before the closing date of 22 May. This figure is very much in line with earlier projections. After the closing date, my Department will begin validating, ranking and selecting GLAS applications. As set out in the scheme's terms and conditions, candidates from tier 1 will receive priority access to the scheme, followed by tier 2 and, in turn, tier 3 candidates who undergo a separate selection process, as required under the terms of the approved rural development programme. However, as commonage farmers have until the end of August to submit their completed commonage management plans which are a prerequisite for approval to participate in GLAS, notification of approvals will not take place until after that date. All applicants will be notified in writing of the outcome of their application.
I anticipate that GLAS contracts will commence from 1 October, with estimated expenditure on the scheme of €20 million in 2015. In the case of those who are unable to submit an application before the deadline, as sometimes occurs for good reason, we plan to reopen GLAS for submissions in September. This means, for example, that if we take 25,000-----
The time for the Minister's reply has concluded.
The more information he provides the better.
I am only trying to be helpful.
I am aware of that.
The Minister did not provide the figure I sought. This is not the first time he failed to provide a figure. Last week, only a number of hours after the online facility for submitting applications had opened, he was able to indicate how many had availed of this facility. How many farmers have submitted completed applications? Will the Minister confirm that only approximately 20% of the 14,800 commonage farmers have gone as far as the action stage of the application process? Will he accept that such a figure equates to a low take-up of the scheme? He stated his intention was to attract 30,000 applicants to GLAS this year. He now hopes 25,000 completed applications will be received under the scheme this year, yet he still intends to spend the full allocation of €20 million for the scheme. Will he explain this discrepancy?
It is important that people understand the process. We opened GLAS early in order that planners could get applications onto the system. All of the preparatory work for the scheme takes time. A plan must be put together and planners must work with farmers to ensure they consider all of the options available to them. Planners are involved in GLAS because it is a complex scheme. The farmer and the planner agree a GLAS plan, including for commonage areas. As commonage plans will take a little more time to implement, we have provided that commonage farmers need only indicate that they will commit to a commonage GLAS plan before the deadline of 22 May. Their plans must then be finalised before the end of August.
We have taken a practical approach that has allowed planners, since February, to get on with the job of acquiring all of the information they need to have a full commonage plan. Farmers can now submit their applications online before the closing date of 22 May. The Department anticipates that we will receive approximately 25,000 completed applications by the closing date, whereas the Deputy stated we would not receive 10,000 applications, which reflects his usual pessimism. If the final figure is slightly below 25,000, so be it and if it is slightly more than 25,000, all the better.
Many farmers who are concerned they may not be able to submit an application before the deadline have asked me whether I will reopen GLAS in the autumn. The Department has indicated it will do so to allow farmers to participate in the scheme from 1 January 2016.
Will the Minister answer my simple question by indicating how many farmers have used the online facility to submit a completed application? He stated many times previously that 30,000 farmers would join GLAS, with participants receiving an average payment of €5,000 and those participating in GLAS plus receiving an average payment of €7,000. Is he sticking to his revised estimate that 25,000 farmers will participate in the scheme? Will participants in GLAS and GLAS plus receive average payments of €5,000 and €7,000, respectively?
Can the Minister confirm that this is still what he expects to happen? He gives out about me being pessimistic, but we will see who is nearer to the figure. I never said it would be beneath €15,000.
I think the Deputy said it would be €10,000.
I did not.
Okay. I am happy to be corrected.
The Minister said that all the commonage farmers would join. Currently, 30% of them have gone as far as the action stage.
It is important that we stick to the facts here. I never said the average payment for people in GLAS would be €5,000 and the average payment for people in GLAS plus would be €7,000. They are the maximum payments, as the Deputy knows. Many farmers will be on the maximum. Of course there will be some farmers who will be on less than the maximum. Therefore, the average will be slightly below the maximum.
By how much will it be below the maximum?
We should not try to create something that is based on misleading people. Everybody knows the maximum payment in GLAS is €5,000 and-----
Good.
-----the maximum payment in GLAS plus is €7,000. We want to try to get as many farmers as possible up to those maximums. They have to apply the rules. They get payments for certain actions they do. More than 50% of this is European money. The European Commission will come and audit GLAS to make sure it gets value for money. The scheme we have put together will allow many farmers, if not most farmers, to get close to the maximum. Certainly, the average will be slightly below that. Some farmers will receive GLAS payments of less than €5,000 because they have a lack of land or do not want to choose some of the actions. We still plan to spend €20 million on GLAS this year. We hope to accept a further 10,000 applicants, in addition to the 25,000 applicants in this round, in the application process that will start in September with payments to be made from 1 January. The plan is that by next year, there will be approximately 35,000 farmers in GLAS. Obviously, there is flexibility either side of those numbers.
