Martin Ferris (Kerry North-West Limerick, Sinn Fein)
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2. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will confirm that over 2,000 letters were sent to farmers by Teagasc this week, informing them that their applications under the green low-carbon agri-environment scheme will not be processed by the closing date of 22 May 2015; and his plans to deal with the matter. [18718/15]

Martin Ferris (Kerry North-West Limerick, Sinn Fein)
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In recent weeks, there has been a great deal of commentary regarding a letter that Teagasc sent to 2,000 farmers, informing them that their GLAS applications will not be processed by the closing date of 22 May. I would like the Minister to comment on that. If it is the case that there will be such a delay, how does he intend to deal with it?

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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I am aware that Teagasc has written to some of its clients to advise them that it does not have the capacity to submit their GLAS plans. As this is a matter between Teagasc and its client base, it would not be appropriate for me to comment on it. As a third party, it is not appropriate for me to become involved in matters which are of a contractual nature between the parties involved. The involvement of trained advisers in the preparation of GLAS plans has been central to the implementation of GLAS since its inception. In view of this, the preparation for the roll-out of GLAS involved my Department organising specific training to ensure an adequate number of advisers would be available to prepare and submit applications on behalf of farmers. Following the completion of this training between November 2014 and February 2015, those who attended the training sessions were required to submit approved forms and details of their educational qualifications to the Department. They were separately required to submit completed registration forms and professional indemnity insurance details to the Department before they could be entered on the register of approved advisers. Some 528 people are approved on the register as GLAS advisers. This gives them access to the GLAS online application system to prepare applications for their farmer clients.

While Teagasc has indicated to some of its clients that it cannot submit applications for them at this stage, it is always open to farmers to approach another adviser. I can understand why that would not be the preference for many farmers who are working with Teagasc. I have announced that a second tranche of GLAS applications will open in the autumn. Any farmers who are unable to apply in the current tranche for whatever reason, for example, it might be taking too long to put the plan in place, will have an opportunity to apply in this second tranche. I ask farmers to understand that it is not such a big deal if they cannot meet the 22 May deadline because GLAS will be opening again three and a half or four months from now. The whole point of our current approach is to accept a tranche of applications now so that we have some time to deal with plans and applications. We will reopen the scheme to applications in September so that the next round of farmers can come in from January. Teagasc will have to work with those deadlines.

Martin Ferris (Kerry North-West Limerick, Sinn Fein)
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I thank the Minister for his clarification. It will not escape me or anybody else that a number of planners, including a Monaghan man and a Mr. McQuinn from my own county, are quoted this week in the Irish Farmers' Journaland the farming section of the Irish Independentas saying they believe there is a massive shortage of planners to assist those who are trying to get their applications in. Thousands of people have had to change their applications for various reasons. The planners are concerned that there will be such a surge of online applications between now and 22 May that it could cause the system to collapse. We are aware of Teagasc's position and we know the planners are now saying something similar. It all suggests that the number of applications coming through in advance of the 22 May deadline cannot be realised. I appreciate that a second tranche of applications will be accepted later in the year.

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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I remind the Deputy that the 22 May deadline already represents an extension of three weeks on what the original date was planned to be. We have already provided some extra space. We do not necessarily have a principled reason for not extending the deadline. I am going to be under a great deal of pressure from the Opposition to make sure we get the GLAS payments out this year. The sooner we get the applications in, the sooner we can process them and the sooner we can start paying. We anticipate that we can get in approximately 25,000 applications in the first round. That would actually be a pretty good result. Farmers who do not manage to get in under the first tranche, for various reasons, will be able to get accepted anyway in September and will essentially start their payments from 1 January 2016, as opposed to 1 October 2015. That is a gap of just three months. When there are 30,000 people wanting to get into a scheme, there will always be people at the deadline who are not quite ready and there will always be planners who would like a little more time. If I were to push this back by another week, I guarantee the Deputy that we would have the same thing at the end of the week after 22 May. The problem is that we would have a week less to assess all of these applications and to get payments out. I am really anxious to ensure we stick to the original timeframe I have been setting out for the last 18 months, or certainly the last 12 months. All of our timescales are drawn up with the aim of getting payments out in the last three months of this year in mind.

Martin Ferris (Kerry North-West Limerick, Sinn Fein)
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I understand the Minister's position on sticking to the deadline so that the processing criteria are adhered to. Some planners have had to withdraw a sizeable number of applications as a result of the change in the criteria. I have to say the Department's decision to issue a booklet setting out the criteria was a very welcome development. In many instances, it has helped people to focus on what is and what is not available. I take it from what the Minister has said that he is ruling out an extension. As we get closer to the date, perhaps he will revisit that by providing for an extension of a week or a fortnight to get this over the hill.

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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People need to understand a very important consideration here. We set 22 May as a deadline because it is a week before people's basic payment applications have to be in.

Martin Ferris (Kerry North-West Limerick, Sinn Fein)
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I know that.

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Farmers will refer to them as their single farm payment applications. The deadline for applications under the basic payment scheme, as it is now called, is 29 May, which is a week later than the deadline under this scheme. We do not want the same closing date for both GLAS and the basic payment. That would really drive planners over the edge because they would have to try to do everything at the same time. We have tried to stagger these deadlines by leaving a week between the two. We want to get all the GLAS applications in before all the final basic payment applications come in the following week. If we pushed the GLAS deadline back by a week, we would push it on top of the basic payment deadline. In such circumstances, I would have to put that back by a week as well.

This is putting even more pressure on the Department to get basic payments out as early as we can in October. I am trying to ensure the vast majority of farmers get payments as early as they can. We will reopen GLAS in September so people who for whatever reason, such as not accessing planners, planners having difficulties or problems with eligibility, will have a bit more time to do it and will be able to enter the scheme in September. I want to give the signal we do not plan to extend the deadlines for either the basic payment or GLAS at this stage.