The Minister for Agriculture is to be called before the Oireachtas Committee for Agriculture to explain serious payment delays in the GLAS scheme.

The latest figures suggest that around 7,800 farmers are still waiting on advance GLAS payments, almost two months after they were due.

Fianna Fáil agriculture spokesperson Charlie McConalogue has said: “For the second year in a row we have farmers facing serious cash flow problems as a result of the minister’s and the department’s failure to roll out these advance payments on time".

"Unfortunately the lessons of last year have been ignored and now we have a case of history repeating itself and farmers are once again waiting months for payments that were due to be paid out before the end of last year”.

Deputy Mc McConalogue also went on to say that Minister Creed was "completely out of touch with the challenges facing small family farmers” and called on the Minister to “ explain to the members of the Oireachtas Agriculture Committee the reason for these continued delays and what mechanisms are being put in place to ensure prompt payment”.

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7,800 farmers still waiting on advance payments

GLAS payment backlog clearing slowly