Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

My Department aims to pay as many farmers as possible their 2017 advance payment. The Department is dependent on all applicants providing the necessary material to qualify for payment.

All GLAS applications must pass regulatory controls and validations, as is the case with all European Union co-funded schemes. Each application must pass the necessary checks, including the commonage check, where applicable, before it can be approved for payment.

Commonage advisers have been assigned to prepare GLAS commonage management plans for the commonages involved. Information sessions for GLAS advisers on the GLAS commonage online system were held and a video demonstrating the system is available on my Department website. A further training session was requested and is taking place today. The online system opened on 19 September and the "submit" button to finalise commonage management plans has been available since 12 October.

Commonage management plans must be submitted before 2017 advance payments can issue and a target of 31 October was set for the submission of these plans. The commonage management plans online system remains open and plans submitted will continue to be processed for payment.

The main issue holding up the payment of outstanding 2016 claims, which will also hold up 2017 advance payments, is the fact that some participants have not yet submitted a nutrient management plan. This is a core requirement of participation in GLAS. As of 3 November, 5,275 nutrient management plans were outstanding. I urge all GLAS participants to attend to this urgently in order that outstanding balancing payments and future payments can issue as well as to ensure ongoing participation in the GLAS scheme.

Further payment runs will be made on a weekly basis as the required material is provided by applicants and cases are cleared. The aim now is to pay as many participants as possible their 2017 advance payment.

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