Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will see what I can do.

Regarding the rural development programme, RDP, my intention is to have the money spent by the end of this round of CAP, which is 2020. As the Deputy is aware, there is a flexibility to go beyond 2020 to n+2 or n+3 if we must, just as with the last RDP when this and the previous Governments had to reduce spending. I hope that we will be able to spend the full amount of money under the new RDP before 2020, but it will be for future governments to decide. The intention is to increase expenditure each year for the next six years. We have increased expenditure by €42 million since last year. That is the start of the new development programme. We will increase expenditure again next year because we must reach an average spend in the next six years that goes far beyond what we are spending currently. This is a good news story for farmers. We will see increasing expenditure each year until 2020 and, potentially, beyond.

The question that everyone is asking is whether we will be able to get the job done on the green low-carbon agri-environment scheme, GLAS, in the time available. For all area-based payment schemes, we must have a deadline of the middle of May under the regulations. This is why we have been so intent on getting GLAS open as soon as we can. As some people who have been following this matter will know, we are opening GLAS on the basis of what is effectively a verbal agreement with the Commission. We are not even getting our letter of comfort from the Commission until the middle of next month. As we must get the application process up and running, we have opened GLAS on the basis of an understanding with the Commission. We are confident that there will be no changes and that the Commission will be satisfied. We will open some of the other schemes, those that are not area based, on the back of the letter of comfort. They can have closing dates beyond 15 May.

There is pressure, but everyone in this room has put me under pressure to get payments out in 2015 for GLAS. We have €20 million in a budget that I want to get out to farmers under GLAS. I want them to be involved for the last three months of the year. If we are to do that, we must get applications in by the middle of May so that we can assess them over the summer and make decisions as soon as we can afterwards.

There are approximately 400 planners outside of Teagasc. Teagasc is working with the farm relief service to take on extra help to get plans in place. The website has been open since yesterday for people to start uploading plans and maps. My official can interrupt me if I am getting anything wrong, but that is my understanding. Planners should not wait for time to pass. The Deputy is right, in that we need a turnover in terms of getting plans prepared and ready for formal submission on the system. We need that process to be up and running this week. That is why we have opened it. Farmers should be talking with their planners today about agreeing a timeframe for putting their plans in place. Many plans will be straightforward. They are not complex.

The commonage plans will also be straightforward but if issues arise with its implementation we are not going to disqualify anybody simply because it is not in place in time. As long as farmers apply and commit to acting in a way that is consistent with the commonage GLAS plan, they will be able to submit their applications earlier and the plan will be confirmed subsequently. If they are struggling to find or agree on a planner for their commonage, the Department will appoint a planner. That is one of the roles we can play on a helpful basis.

The numbers I provided earlier on REPS and AEOS were approximations prepared for me by the Department. The correct figure for AEOS is 19,275. AEOS 1 is 7,500, whereas AEOS 2 and 3 are just under 6,000 each.

We are looking to accommodate later closing dates for commonages, which I recognise is a genuine concern, but I hope they will not be necessary. In regard to land eligibility, I received an open letter on this issue. There is no agenda in my Department to force down the eligible land on commonage areas. We are required to carry out a certain number of inspections all over the country over commonage land and non-commonage land. It is up to farmers to decide how much land they include on their single farm payment application under Pillar 1. It is not up to us to tell them. We can indicate a guideline figure on what we think is eligible but the farmers ultimately have to exercise their judgment on what they consider to be farmable land. We want to help farmers get land that is not currently being farmed back into production. This is why GLAS is such a progressive scheme. It aims to increase stocking rates in most cases because there has been under grazing on certain commonage areas. There has also been over grazing, however, and we need to manage that. I hope GLAS will be able to get land into a better condition in many cases. The only way commonage land can be managed is by grazing it.