Even as GLAS III opens, serious concerns are emerging around existing GLAS plans.

Commonage plans, particularly those carried out by FRS operatives under contract from Teagasc, are in the spotlight. Many of the planners contracted have been released or moved on. This leaves 300 commonages in a vacuum, with over 1,000 farmers potentially affected.

Commonage management plans were awarded to planners on a tender basis. It is understood that the planners were the responsible persons, not the agency they worked for, be that Teagasc, FRS, or a private planner. The question now is how the plans are to be redeployed, within Teagasc/FRS, or whether the competing agents who were not successful when the tender was awarded.

Meanwhile, farmers are left waiting and wondering who is responsible for the plans their GLAS payment income is dependent on. Teagasc says that it is in discussions with the Deparment of Agriculture to try to resolve the issues.

A Department spokesman said it is “aware of the situation and are making arrangements to deal with these cases – our priority is to ensure that they get paid at the same time as other GLAS applicants”.

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IFA hill committee chair Pat Dunne described the situation as “unacceptable”, with “some commonages left high and dry by the refusal to accept commonages plans where the planner assigned to the commonage is no longer doing plans”.

The IFA called on the Department of Agriculture to put arrangements in place so that farmers on the 300 commonages affected can be paid at the same time as all other farmers. All commonage farmers must be allowed to signal their intent to sign up to the interim plans which will then trigger a payment later this year.

Both Pat Dunne and the IHNFA are calling for the minister to appoint a new chair to the Independent Commonages Appeals Committee, as has Sinn Féin MEP Matt Carthy. It is understood that the committee has not met in 2016. IFA president Joe Healy was chair of the body, set up to address problems individual commonage shareholders have within the framework of the management plan for their commonage. No successor has been installed since Healy’s election in April.

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Glas III: how to apply