Demand for increased spaces in GLAS III

Pressure is mounting on the Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed to make every effort to accept as many applications as possible into the third tranche of GLAS.

The scheme is set to be oversubscribed with a massive 14,100 applications being created on the GLAS III online application system as of Tuesday.

The Department said that these are all new applications.

Any failed applications in tranche one and two are usually re-drafted and submitted again to the third tranche. The closing date for the submission of applications is 15 December and it is expected many more applications will be uploaded ahead of this date.

With increasing submissions, it is becoming less likely that applications falling into tier three will be successful.

The Department is urging applicants to select the higher priority actions and assets which would promote their application to a higher tier, thereby improving their chances of selection into the scheme.

The big question is how many applications will be accepted. The Department has said that at least 50,000 farmers in total will be accommodated in GLAS when the third tranche goes live.

There are 38,000 farmers participating in the first two tranches. This leaves at least 12,000 available spaces for tranche three.

Farming organisations are pushing for at least 15,000 farmers to be accommodated in this tranche.

IFA rural development chair Joe Brady said that Minister Creed now needs to increase the numbers to at least 55,000 from 1 January, so that between then and the end of the Rural Development Programme (RDP) in December 2020 that the €250m annual average pay-out is achieved over the lifetime of the RDP.

Payments

Farmers already in GLAS I and II are awaiting payments. The Irish Farmers Journal understands GLAS payments will be made on 19 December. Patrick Rohan, chair of the ICMSA, has stated that the continuing delays in GLAS payments are throwing farm finances into chaos.