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

First, there are no cutbacks early in the scheme. Second, we always said the maximum payment for GLAS was €5,000, or €7,000 for GLAS+. We also said that we thought the average payment would be very close to the maximum payment of €5,000 because the majority of farmers would be able to draw down the full amount. Let us be accurate about what was said rather than trying to change things.

The first tranche of GLAS has proved to be hugely successful, attracting nearly 27,000 applicants in all. Applications were received from every single county and virtually every action was selected at some stage. On the basis of the interest shown to date, I have no doubt that GLAS will succeed in attracting the 50,000 applications projected over the lifetime of the scheme. We have a projected figure of about €250 million of expenditure per year when the full 50,000 applicants are in the scheme, but we always said this would have to happen on a phased basis. Farming organisations bought into that at the time. We have 27,000 applications now. We will open applications for tranche two next week, which will take into another 10,000. Therefore, we will have roughly 36,000 farmers in GLAS by next year, with the second tranche starting from 1 January. We will then progress after that to move up to the full 50,000 applicants when we can afford to do it. Nobody was suggesting or expecting that we would have the full 50,000 applicants in the scheme in the first year. That would be totally unrealistic.

I expect that the first approvals for GLAS will issue next week or very shortly thereafter. On the basis of the expected intake, expenditure this year on GLAS will be €20 million. Preparations for the discussions on 2016 Estimate for next year are under way and we will hear much more about that next week.

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