IFA president Eddie Downey has urged farmers to continue to put pressure on TDs and public representatives to ensure that the Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney opens the Green Low Carbon Agri-Environment Scheme (GLAS) next month. He made the remarks at an IFA regional meeting in Donegal on Tuesday night, ahead of a planned day of lobbying of TDs and public representatives on the issue on Wednesday.

IFA Rural Development Committee chairman Flor McCarthy said: ‘‘This is the second or third year without an environmental programme in place; we need to get the money flowing into farmers’ pockets.’’

He said that there are still some issues in relation to GLAS that need to be ironed out, but the main focus is to get the scheme open for applications. This was echoed by Downey, who said: ‘‘These problems will be solved once the scheme is up and running.’’

McCarthy said that the IFA was not happy with the fact that 50% of the active farmers on commonages must participate in the commonage management plan in Glas, but they take him at his word that he will not disallow anyone from GLAS because of this. He added that the IFA is lobbying that every farmer who applies this year for GLAS be accepted, even if the total figure exceeds 30,000.

Downey said: ‘‘There is no collective agreement; there is a common plan which must be drawn up. You have no responsibility to anyone else, just for your share of the plan and stocking requirements.’’

Answering questions from the floor, McCarthy said the IFA understands that all farmers with commonage, who are currently in AEOS will have to join GLAS. He said that, for these farmers, payments under AEOS will continue until the date of joining GLAS.

He added that the IFA proposes that farmers with commonage can submit their GLAS plans before the mid-May deadline, with the ability for the commonage management plan to be lodged in early summer.

On the issue of ineligible land, both Downey and McCarthy were adamant that farmers focus on ensuring that their land meets Good Agricultural & Environmental Condition (GAEC) requirements.

Downey urged farmers to ensure that all ineligible areas are omitted from the Basic Payment Scheme (new SPS) applications this year. McCarthy emphasised that, for commonages, the Department of Agriculture has said that it will give a lead-in time for farmers to bring areas back into GAEC.

Farmers from the floor also voiced concerns that under GLAS, farmers with non-designated hill land will receive no payments for this land on a per-hectare basis.

Although species-rich grassland may be an option, farmers with large areas of moorland will not qualify for this measure either.