Breian said he recieves GLAS enquiries on a daily basis, with most of his farmers based in Mayo and Galway.

"We have three advisors, including myself, and while most of our farmers are in Mayo and Galway, we have taken on new clients from Sligo, Leitrim and Roscommon," he said. "The scheme is very positive for farmers as most of our clients are beef, suckler and sheep farmers."

However, he is disappointed that these farmers are not more of a priority.

"It is also unfair that new entrants can’t enter GLAS this year and will have to wait for GLAS 2," he added.

Two thirds of Breian's clients have watercourses, which will help in increasing payments.

"After that, the traditional hay meadows and low-input pasture will be popular with farmers to boost payments under the scheme. If we can get a farmer over €3,000 with these measures, we find it easier to then get them the €5,000 maximum payment," he said.

Many of Breian's farmers are also looking at stone walls, orchards and woodlands, with one in three farmers also considering planting hedgerows. Even with all of these actions, the average payment will be around €3,500 to €4,000, mainly due to farm size as farmers farming over 20ha are able to hit the €5,000 easier.

He has very few farmers with commonage but will look to other advisers who will develop commonage framework plans to get farmers into the scheme.

Carroll Consultancy is charging between €400 to €520 to put in a GLAS plan and €275 minimum plus VAT for the nutrient management plan. The fee each year will range from €300 to €390 plus VAT depending on the farm size.