Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 24 July 2018
1993. Deputy Eamon Ryan asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if his attention has been drawn to the negative effects of the transition from REPS to GLAS, especially on low-income cattle and sheep farmers, and to the fact that GLAS, as currently configured, does not perform well in rewarding more environmentally focused farmers. [35200/18]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe GLAS scheme is the most popular scheme ever run under a Rural Development Programme in Ireland. The original target of 50,000 participants was surpassed well ahead of the targeted date.
Total scheme payments in 2017 amounted to €195.6m, including €4.1m on GLAS training. A further €63.4m has issued in GLAS payments in 2018. To date 48,051 farmers have received their 2017 advance payment. This equates to over 99% of eligible cases. In addition 37,302 have received their balance payment representing over 98% of those currently eligible.
While the issue of payments is of the utmost importance it is also important to recognise the potential of the scheme in terms of delivering environmental and public good benefits. The total number approved into the scheme has created the potential to achieve:
- The Low Input Permanent Pasture and the Traditional Hay Meadow actions offer the potential of some 300,000 hectares of diverse grassland species
- 29,000 kilometres of river bank managed to protect rivers from pollution under the Protection of Watercourses from Bovines and Riparian Margins actions
- Over 200,000 hectares of farmland bird habitat managed to protect bird species
- Over 20,000 hectares of Wild Bird Cover providing winter feed for farmland birds
- Over 2m trees planted
- Almost 5,000 farmers using new technologies to spread slurry
- 10,000 hectare of arable land cultivated using Minimum Tillage techniques
These achievements will deliver benefits across the key areas of Water Quality, Biodiversity and Climate Change and will place Ireland in a positive position in discussions on future agri-environment schemes.
