Mr. Tom Dawson:

On Deputy Ó Cuív's point regarding the commonage management plan, the land eligibility issue is a wider problem than GLAS alone. Many commonage farmers, for one reason or another, will not participate in GLAS. We submit - as was the case when the framework plans were done back in the late 1980s or early 1990s and early 2000s - that this is something that should be undertaken by the State. It is a State-wide problem. We would support the Deputy's submission on that.

Regarding the GLAS system, it is continually being updated by the Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine, but unfortunately, the rate at which the system is being updated and fixes are being put into it is too slow. We were told yesterday evening that another new fix would be applied to the GLAS online system this weekend coming, but that is another week in which we cannot properly complete GLAS applications. We are not happy with the rate of progress on the GLAS online system. If the GLAS scheme was closing at the end of August or the end of September we might not be too worried, but only a few weeks or a little over a month remains in respect of the GLAS online system. It is a system that is not fit for purpose. I recognise from the Department's point of view that it has done a good deal of work on it. It has improved from the level it was at but it is not just there yet.