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

It went to the Commission in the first week in July and we expect a draft response on 3 October. If the Commission has any problems, there will be negotiations. This is with regard to the overall rural development programme and not just GLAS. GLAS is a big part of it but it is only one part because it also includes island communities, disadvantaged area payments, targeted agriculture modernisation scheme payments and young farmer supports.

Some people have been quite critical of entry to GLAS. When the scheme is fully up and running, it will spend €260 million a year. It is a huge environmental scheme and a massive initiative. We hope to have between 25,000 and 30,000 farmers in the scheme in its first year. We hope to be able to launch it in December, or earlier if we can. We have spoken to farming organisations and agricultural consultants and planners. They need at least five months to prepare all of the farmers' applications for the scheme because if we want to include between 25,000 and 30,000 farmers, it means 35,000 or 40,000 farmers could apply. This means that potentially one third of all farmers in Ireland could apply for GLAS. It will take a lot of management to ensure all of the applications get in on time given the fact that outside of Teagasc there are only 400 planners in the country. There is a big job to be done. We will then need to assess all of the applications. If we receive all of the applications by May or June, the assessment procedure will take until September and we hope to start payments under the new scheme by the end of next year. This is the timetable agreed by all the farm bodies because everybody wants to include as many farmers as we can. I could do it much quicker if I was only including 6,000 or 7,000 farmers, but people want to include as many farmers as we can, as do I. Many farmers are coming out of REPS and want a new scheme quickly. We will do it as fast as we can but it is a big job.

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