The Government envisages that the GLAS scheme will be extended until such time as a new scheme under the CAP is up and running, the Tánaiste Leo Varadkar has told the Dáil.GLAS contracts to some 36,000 farmers are due to expire at the end of this year and with the new CAP delayed for at least a year, farmers could be left without an average payment of €4,500. The remaining contracts will expire at the end of 2021.
The Government envisages that the GLAS scheme will be extended until such time as a new scheme under the CAP is up and running, the Tánaiste Leo Varadkar has told the Dáil.
GLAS contracts to some 36,000 farmers are due to expire at the end of this year and with the new CAP delayed for at least a year, farmers could be left without an average payment of €4,500. The remaining contracts will expire at the end of 2021.
Independent TD Michael Fitzmaurice raised the issue with the Tánaiste on Thursday, saying farmers needed certainty around the scheme and concrete details on a rollover.
The Tánaiste said no formal decision had been taken but it was anticpated that it would be extended for the transition period to the new CAP.
Announcement
“Minister [for Agriculture] Dara Calleary, when he’s ready to make an announcement around GLAS, will. I know he’ll want to make that as soon as he can,” Varadkar said.
He did not know the details behind an extension as European Commission approval may be required, he said, but added Minister Calleary would make an announcement “as soon as he can”.
The Tánaiste added that the government would be working on is getting the REPS II scheme up and running. He said it would be funded by proceeds from the carbon tax to allow farmers make changes “beneficial for the environment as well as their incomes”.
However, Fitzmaurice cautioned that REPS would begin as a pilot scheme and a pilot scheme “is only going to be a certain number of people over a length of time”.
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