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

I will go through the tiers shortly. We are trying to get as many into it as we can. There will be a second phase in which to take others, as we want to have 50,000 farmers in GLAS over the next few years. In tier 1, all farmers with priority environmental assets, PEAs, get first priority access to the scheme in year one and subsequent years. If any of the following PEAs are applicable to the holding, they must be chosen and the relevant actions planned: these are farmland habitat, or Natura locations; farmland birds, from hen harrier to grey partridge, corncrake, waders and so on; commonage land; a high status water area; rare breeds and so on. In the absence of any listed PEAs, a farmer, whether beef, sheep or dairy, with a whole farm stocking rate exceeding 140 kg livestock manure nitrogen per hectare - in other words, an intensive farm - or a farmer with more than 30 hectares of arable land will be considered under tier 1. That is because we are trying to get a mix predominantly of farmers in Natura or commonage areas and so on but with some intensive farmers as well.

With tier 2 we are considering farmers in vulnerable water areas, and this is primarily about low-emission slurry spreading, minimum tillage, green cover establishment from a sown crop, wild bird cover and so on. With tier 3 we consider everybody else, and any applicants would have a list of elements that can be applied on farms. We hope to get a number of farmers in on tier 3 as well. Tiers 1 and 2 will be prioritised but with 30,000 farmers or so coming into GLAS, we will be able to get quite a number in from tier 3 as well. Not everybody will get in the first time around but the vast majority of farmers will do so.

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