Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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120. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of approved agricultural planners in the country, approved to prepare green low-carbon agri-environmental scheme plans; the arrangements in place to ensure that the charges are reasonable; his plans to introducing a mandatory bonding scheme, where planners would have to insure themselves against claims by farmers for negligence or wrong information; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9728/15]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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GLAS is a voluntary Scheme and one of the requirements is that applications be prepared by approved planners. A round 7 00 planners attended GLAS Training and 348 of these have been fully approved as GLAS Advisors by my Department to date; the remainder are being approved on an ongoing basis once all qualifying criteria has been met and all required documentation has been submitted. This includes evidence of Professional Indemnity cover, a requirement which has specifically been put in place to protect farmers in the event that they have a legitimate claim against an advisor. A list of approved advisors, with contact details, is available on the Department’s website for the convenience of farmers. This list is updated as soon as additional advisors are approved and I am confident that there are enough advisors available to allow farmers to make an informed choice as to who to use for preparation of their GLAS applications.

The choice of an approved advisor is a matter for individual farmers, or in the case of commonages is a matter to be decided by the shareholders. The charge for preparing applications and plans is strictly a contractual issue between the advisor and his/her client or clients and is not something my Department has a role in or is party to.

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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121. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine his plans to reserve places for commonage farmers in round two and three of the green low-carbon agri-environmental scheme, in view of the difficulty that will be faced by commonage farmers in making applications by the due date of 15 May 2015; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9729/15]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Following long and complex negotiations with the European Commission, I was very pleased to open GLAS for applications from Monday 23 February 2015. However, despite opening the scheme at the earliest possible opportunity, I fully appreciate that the timescale is tight for those proposing to submit applications, and particularly for commonage farmers.

The first Tranche for applications for GLAS will close on 30 April 2015 and to assist with the submission of applications by commonage farmers, I recently announced that all such applications can now be made on an individual basis through my Department’s dedicated online system. Commonage farmers will simply be required to submit a statement of intent to join a Commonage Management Plan, but the Plan itself need not be submitted by the closing date of 30 April. Instead, I have extended the date for submission of completed Plans to 3 July, 2015. I expect that this will give advisors ample time to walk and assess commonages during May and June, and to discuss with shareholders the requirements of the plan, in terms of individual stocking rates and activities to be undertaken.

I also anticipate from the interest shown to date, and given the number of advisors who have taken part in specific GLAS Commonage Training, that there will be very good uptake of the Commonage measure in Tranche 1.