More than 20,000 applications to GLAS are expected to be submitted by the deadline of midnight tomorrow night.

Planners have been burning the midnight oil in the last week and will finally get a good night’s sleep.

The online system has been creaking under the volume of traffic in recent days, with some private planners working night shifts to get applications in on time.

There were some calls for an extension to GLAS, but most planners were wary due to the work they face into for the next major scheme deadlines on 29 May.

IFA Rural Development Committee chair Flor McCarthy has said that Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney must ensure all applicants who apply for the current phase of GLAS must be accepted into the scheme, even if this means allowing applications in after next Friday.

After Friday, the focus will switch to the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) applications. With more than 100,000 already in, the pace is bound to be less frenetic.

However, it is the other new schemes such as the Beef Data and Genomic Programme and Scottish derogation where more time will be needed to explain the impact for farmers applying, or in some cases not applying.