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Fianna Fáil spokesperson Charlie McConalogue has said that the Government is refusing to face up to the fact that there is an underspend in GLAS, as highlighted two weeks ago by the Irish Farmers Journal.
Speaking to the Irish Farmers Journal this week, McConalogue said the Government is putting its head in the sand on this issue.
"The Government has been putting its head in the sand and basically trying to say there is no problem here. It is refusing to front up to the fact that it has totally underspent on the RDP [Rural Development Programme] and there’s no avoiding the scenario that there will be an underspend by the end of this current CAP in 2020 unless there is a change of approach."
The GLAS scheme is running at under-capacity
Farmers were promised they would receive €1.45bn under the scheme in the years between 2014 and 2020. But, due to a number of factors, including no money being paid out in 2014 and under-subscription to scheme, there will be an underspend of approximately €376.5m.
"The GLAS scheme is running at under-capacity," said McConalogue. "It was supposed to take in 50,000 applicants but only 38,000 applicants are in it so far. There was also supposed to be a spend of at least €5,000 per farmer per year. Instead they are getting less than €4,500."
McConalogue said that even in the best case scenario – where there are 50,000 farmers in GLAS next year and each gets their full payment – there will be still be an underspend of over €300m by 2020.
Government response
The Government has denied the underspend, saying that funding of GLAS will continue into the years after 2020, allowing farmers who join now to finish their five-year contracts.
The Department tends to overestimate projections on spending
In addition, Aidan O'Driscoll, secretary general of the Department of Agriculture, recently told the Joint Oireachtas Agriculture Committee that it is normal for there to be a certain amount of underspend in the RDP, as the Department tends to overestimate projections on spending so that they do not encounter a scenario where they do not have enough money for the schemes.
However, McConalogue decried these explanations, saying if you employed someone in a job and told them at the outset they were going to get paid a certain amount between now and 2020, and then told them the money would be paid to them after 2020 provided they kept working, you would be underspending and shortchanging the worker.
"It’s a fudge – a total fudge, he said. "The Government is duping farmers and leaving them shortchanged."
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