Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail)
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307. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine when applications will be open for the new GLAS scheme; when first payments will issue for early entrants to the scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [47911/14]

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 Ireland’s Rural Development Programme (RDP) which was submitted to the European Commission in July. The Commission services have recently notified us of their observations on the draft Scheme, to which my Department provided immediate and detailed replies. Discussions are now continuing with the Commission, with a view to gaining approval at the earliest possible date. Once approval is granted, my Department will move to open the Scheme for applications. I anticipate that between 25,000 and 30,000 farmers could be approved for entry to GLAS next year and it will take some time to process those applications. As with the introduction of previous agri-environmental schemes, payment in the first year of application (2015) will be on a part-year basis, followed by annual payments for the following full 5 calendar years.