Funding for boxes will come under the new GLAS scheme that 27,000 farmers have entered.

According to figures recently released by the Department of Agriculture there will be 90,000 bird boxes put up by farmers who have entered GLAS. For each bird box the farmer will receive a payment of €6/box/year, subject to a minimum of one boxes per farmer and a maximum of 15. Bird boxes must be erected by 31 March 2016 in order to receive payment.

Farmers have also committed to installing 80,000 bat boxes. At a payment of €13/box/year this works out at €1.04m worth of bat boxes. In order to receive payment for this action the farmer must erect a minimum of three boxes and can only receive payment for the maximum of 15 boxes, the completion date for these is also 31 March 2016.

Bird and bat boxes are included in tier three of GLAS which aims to enhance climate change, water quality and biodiversity benefits delivered and could have been chosen in addition to tier one and tier two or on their own.