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The Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed has been called on to reopen GLAS to 2,000 AEOS farmers.
Fianna Fáil spokesperson on agriculture Charlie McConalogue said there were 2,117 farmers whose AEOS scheme contracts had expired on 31 December 2018. He said these farmers had been left without any financial supports encouraging them to farm in a positive and climate-friendly manner.
“Permitting access to the scheme will increase profitability levels, while carrying out additional actions that are conducive with the protection of the environment and climate change mitigation,” McConalogue said.
Commitment
“It must also be remembered that in 2015, the Government said once the scheme was fully opened with 50,000 farmers it would require funding of €250m per annum.
“This financial commitment has not been delivered by the Government, while there are now under 49,000 participants.”
McConalogue said given there would be a one- to two-year CAP transition period, the minister must also confirm that existing GLAS contracts would be rolled over.
Contracts for farmers under GLAS I and GLAS II will begin to expire at the end of 2020.
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