It will be October before all 27,000 farmers who applied for the GLAS scheme will learn if their applications were successful, according to the Department of Agriculture. That is when the Department anticipates the letters of approval will be sent out for the scheme.

It now looks like the majority of farmers who applied for the scheme will be granted approval. Around 500 applicants have been automatically ruled out as they did not reach the points threshold in the ranking system. The average annual payment for farmers is believed to be between €4,400 and €4,700 – higher than initially believed.

The good news is that 2015 payments for successful applicants look set to average €800 to €1,000 and are due to start in mid-December. Farmers will only get paid on specific measures for the three months of 2015 for which they are approved in the scheme, which could mean up to €20m being paid out in December.

ADVERTISEMENT

In a circular published this week, the Department stated that wild bird habitats and commonage submitted will receive the three-month payments. Commonage farmers would get €30/ha.

Popular

The most popular measure – low-input permanent pasture, totalling 180,000ha and chosen by 20,000 farmers – will involve three-month payments of €78.50/ha.

A similar payment will be made on the 18,180ha of traditional hay meadows submitted. The Department will pay a part payment of 17.5c/km on the 6,300km of traditional stone walls submitted.

All other approved actions will not receive payment in 2015. They are only payable for the five-year period from 1 January 2016 to 31 December 2020, so they will be paid in December 2016.

Payments for rare breeds and low-emission slurry spreading will be subject to the appropriate documents being submitted and will be paid in arrears with the payment for 2016 included in 2017 payments.

The Department is also expected to reopen the online system for the second tranche of GLAS applications in the next few weeks. This will allow advisers to submit draft plans similar to what was done in the spring. They will then open the application in early October for a four- to six-week period, with successful farmers starting on 1 January 2016.

There are 10,000 places available in the second tranche, but it is believed that only Tier 1 applicants, such as commonage farmers, are guaranteed to get in.

Tier 3 farmers are unlikely to gain access due to the high level expected to be accepted in the first round. This will see many farmers pick options such as wild bird cover to get access though Tier 2.

The Department has not ruled out changes to its points ranking system to ensure that targets are met for all the different measures.

This will bring the number of farmers in GLAS close to 35,000.

With places for 50,000 farmers, a third tranche is expected to opened around June 2016 to fill the remaining places in the scheme.

Successful farmers under this tranche will start their five-year GLAS contract from 1 January 2017.