Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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26. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the total number of applicants he expects to join the new GLAS scheme 2014-2020 in the years 2015, 2016 and 2017; the average payment he expects them to receive; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26115/14]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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GLAS (the Green Low-carbon Agri-environment Scheme) is part of a suite of proposed measures under the new Rural Development Programme (RDP). Prior to any roll-out of the scheme the RDP must be submitted to the European Commission for approval and I expect to be in a position to do this shortly. The European Union approval procedure will involve a detailed analysis of our proposals and will take a number of months.

GLAS is designed around core requirements which all applicants must satisfy. A tiered approach is being applied to entry into the Scheme and the tiers are based on a consideration of priority environmental assets and actions.

The proposed maximum payment is €5,000 per annum, with the Scheme building up to the inclusion of some 50,000 farmers with a total envisaged expenditure of €1,450m over the programming period. It is envisaged that the number of Scheme participants at end of 2015 will be 25,000; at the end of 2016 will be 35,000 and at the end of 2017 will be 45,000 with the full complement of 50,000 being achieved in 2018. I expect most farmers to achieve the maximum payment under the Scheme.

It is also proposed that, within budget limits, a GLAS+ payment would be put in place for a limited number of farmers who take on particularly challenging actions which deliver an exceptional level of environmental benefit. It is proposed that this payment will be up to €2,000 per annum.