The Irish Farmers Journal received a GLAS payments update all the way from Shanghai on Wednesday. A spokesperson for the Department of Agriculture confirmed at a trade briefing in China that 2017 GLAS balancing payments will begin to issue this Friday 18 May.

This week’s payment run is worth over €17.5m in to 28,000 farmers in the GLAS scheme with a further significant payrun planned for next week.

There are just under 50,000 farmers participating in GLAS. Over €170m has been paid in advance payments to farmers already for 2017.

The advance payment makes up 85% of the total payment, with the balancing 15% payment due this Friday.

There are a number of farmers still awaiting their advance GLAS payments. The latest update on 27 April says 1,500 applicants remain ineligible to receive their 2017 advance payment.

According to the Department, the main issues causing delays include the failure to submit a nutrient management plan, failure to submit a low-emission slurry spreading form, no commonage management plan submitted, and non-completion of a GLAS training course. There have also been issues with redigitisation of maps which has held up payments in the recent past.