Ms Gillian Westbrook:

It was previously reported that we were charging €2,000 or €3,000, but it was not mentioned that this is over five years. I agree with the Deputy that some people are getting €2,000. In such cases, the double funding of GLAS is a big issue. I appreciate that some people have argued that GLAS is a very good scheme because they can get priority access into it. However, certain aspects of it, such as the premium payments, mean that the organic farmer will be better off in GLAS. The organic farming sector comprises hundreds of thousands of small farmers. It is important that organic farmers are not omitted from environmental schemes. I know many small farmers are very insulted by the fact that even though they are farming in an environmentally friendly way to produce food for an organic food chain, they cannot get involved in an environmental scheme. I would have to agree with them. The Irish Organic Farmers and Growers Association made a submission under the GLAS programme saying that these were additional measures that would not attract double funding. We called it GLAS+. I do not know if that was a mistake. If so, I apologise. It is not easy to come up with measures that would not attract double funding. We agree that this is a major barrier. We would love to see it removed.