Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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97. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the date on which he opened the Green Low-Carbon Agri-Environmental Scheme for application; the latest date by which applications have to be submitted; the number of applications that have been registered on the system; the number that have proceeded to select actions; the number of completed applications received, broken down by tier and by county; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16181/15]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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I was pleased that discussions with the European Commission were sufficiently advanced to allow me to open the GLAS online application system on 23 February, 2015 for the preparation of applications pending formal approval of the Rural Development Programme. The initial closing date for receipt of applications was 15 May, 2015, which I have now extended to 22 May, 2015 in order to give Advisors and farmers more time to agree and finalise applications. This extra time was afforded me by the Commission decision to allow Member States to extend the closing date for the Basic Payment Scheme, which in turn dictates the closing date for application s into GLAS.

The information requested by the Deputy in relation to GLAS applications is set out in tabular form below, broken down by county for total applications and applications that have already added actions. The tier breakdown is more fluid, as up until applications are actually submitted, applicants have the opportunity to adopt particular actions which will improve their ranking. As things stand the breakdown for applications with associated actions indicates that some 44% at least will be Tier 1, some 24% Tier 2 and 32% Tier 3. However, these are subject to change, and in particular I would expect that many of the Tier 3 applicants will adopt actions which promote them into Tier 2.

No applications have been formally submitted to date, as the ‘submit’ facility has yet to be activated on the GLAS on-line system. This is to allow as much time as possible for applicants and advisers to familiarise themselves with the scheme before finalising their applications. It is not possible, therefore, to give the number of completed applications broken down by County.