It was confirmed at Thursday’s meeting between Department of Agriculture officials and farm organisations on the implementation of the farmers’ Charter of Rights, that this year’s GLAS payments would go ahead next week.

These are the first full-year payments under the scheme and 85% of the total grants are due before the end of this year. Some 26,300 farmers entered GLAS in the first tranche and another 11,700 in the second tranche.

This will come as applications for the third tranche of the scheme close next Thursday. Although nearly 18,000 farmers started an online application, it has since emerged that not all would go ahead and complete the process, raising hope that existing resources will be sufficient to accommodate all those who submit a full application.

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Full coverage: GLAS