Martin Ferris (Kerry North-West Limerick, Sinn Fein)
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130. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will accept that a quarter payment to farmers in the Green Low-Carbon Agri-Environmental Scheme, as is proposed for October, is inadequate. [6900/15]

Martin Ferris (Kerry North-West Limerick, Sinn Fein)
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The Minister announced at the committee a few weeks ago that he was accepting applications for GLAS from February and that the first payments would be in October, a quarter payment. Does he accept that a quarter payment in the GLAS, as is proposed for October, is inadequate, given the time they have been without payment?

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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This schedule has been the topic of discussion for about a year now. I sat down with all the farming organisations and asked them what their priority was for the new agri-environment scheme, namely, GLAS, which is replacing REPS and AEOS for many farmers. I told them we could allow a small number of farmers in for the first phase, go through the application process quickly because numbers would be relatively low, get approvals in early and get payments out early or we could get many more farmers in, but that would take more time. Every single one of the farming organisations told me the priority was to get as many farmers into GLAS in the first phase as possible. Everybody asked me to do that. That is why we are looking to accept somewhere between 25,000 and 30,000 farmers into GLAS in the first tranche. If 30,000 farmers are accepted to a scheme, there could be 35,000 or 40,000 applicants. Outside of Teagasc, we only have 400 planners in the country. This process will take time. Some 30,000 or 40,000 GLAS plans must be put in place and assessed by us, because nobody can get a payment until their plan has been assessed and approved and they have been accepted into the scheme. The plan was that for the first five months of the year or so, we would have farmers applying for GLAS in huge numbers. We would assess all those applications over the summer and make decisions so that people would be accepted into the scheme in September and we assigned approximately €20 million in the Estimates, so that we could pay out in the last three months of the year.

While the application process for GLAS is starting approximately two months later than we had hoped, we will try to stick to the schedule. Farmers have been primed and we hope applications will be submitted as quickly as possible. We will try to have the application process completed by the end of May in order that assessments can be made over the summer and farmers can join the scheme in September. We cannot have it every which way, however, because it is not possible to have an application process for only a couple of weeks for a scheme that will apply to 30,000 farmers.

Martin Ferris (Kerry North-West Limerick, Sinn Fein)
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The scheme opened for applications in February. As we approach the third week of the month, how many applications have been received? Does the Minister accept that an applicant who receives the full payment of €5,000 will receive a payment of only €1,250 in October provided all the criteria have been met? Most of the payment will be needed to pay the planner, which means that farmers will not have any income in the months leading up to Christmas? Does the Minister accept that that is the case? Could the payment be increased? For example, could a double payment or a payment for six months be made to ensure farmers would have some money in their pockets? Many farmers who previously received payments under the rural environment protection scheme, REPS, have not received any payment for the past 12 months. As the Minister will be aware, small and marginal farmers are dependent on these schemes.

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Farmers apply for and receive payments under many schemes, although it is correct that in respect of environmental schemes, they have been waiting for some time for a major scheme to replace the rural environment protection scheme. The agri-environment options scheme, AEOS, was introduced as a stop-gap measure by the previous Government and maintained by this Government. While the scheme was successful, the small numbers involved meant that we needed a major environmental scheme. When GLAS is up and running, it will be worth €260 million per annum to approximately 50,000 farmers. While the scheme is not yet open, the first 30,000 participants will be accepted soon. I am moving as fast as possible to secure approval from the European Commission and we are close to reaching a verbal agreement with it on the details of the scheme. Once it opens, we will not waste time and I will encourage farmers to submit applications.

I have always made it clear that farmers should not view GLAS from the perspective of the size of grant they receive in 2015 but on the basis that they will secure access to a five-year scheme. Regardless of whether applications are accepted in August, September or October, farmers will participate in the scheme for five years and receive their first staged payment at the end of this year, with further payments for the next five years. This is a cashflow issue.