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Farmers are facing exclusion from the €1bn GLAS scheme, which is on course to be oversubscribed. Most at risk of losing out are suckler farmers with no spare land for priority environmental measures.
Close to 10,000 applications have been made since the scheme opened on 3 November with funding for 12,000 farmers. With another two weeks left before the 15 December deadline, thousands more applications are expected.
If so, it is inevitable that some GLAS plans now categorised as Tier 2 and Tier 3 in particular will be rejected.
Farmer organisations are lobbying Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed to increase the spaces available so most farmer applicants can be accommodated.
His Department has stated: “The total number of applications selected into the scheme will be based on the available budget.”
However, there may be scope to approve more than 12,000 applications in this tranche given the estimated €376.5m underspend, as identified by Fianna Fáil’s Charlie McConalogue and revealed in the Irish Farmers Journal last month.
IFA rural development chair Joe Brady on Wednesday warned that with the huge interest in the scheme, it was up to Minister Creed to accept up to 15,000 farmers and to ensure that the €250m Rural Development Programme annual commitment is fully honoured. Up to 55,000 farmers should be in the scheme from 1 January next, he said.
Some 38,000 farmers are already participating in GLAS.
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