Minister Coveney said: “This is another milestone achieved for the rollout of GLAS, which has already proved one of the most attractive agri-environment schemes ever offered to Irish farmers. Interest in the second tranche of GLAS has again exceeded expectations, with over 14,000 applications submitted.”

A total of 17,625 farmers with a start date of 1 October 2015 will receive a first instalment payment of what is due for the period October to December. The total value of payments comes to just over €11.5m. Almost 27,000 applied to the first tranche of GLAS but only this amount are receiving payment this week because of delays with payment clearances for the rest of the applicants.

The minister added that he was particularly pleased to see such a proportion of Tier 1 and Tier 2 applications being submitted in this tranche, which together accounted for 80% of all applications received.

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To read more about the demand for GLAS click here