Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Independent)
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116. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will extend the closing date for receipt of completed applications for the green low-carbon agri-environmental scheme by at least one month, in view of the fact that he has imposed new terms and conditions from 5 May 2015, just 12 days prior to the current closing date, which involves a change in the ranking system for Tier 3 farmers, as a result of which farm planners will be obliged to recheck applications submitted previously, in addition to ongoing attempts to submit new applications into the system on time; if he will recognise that he has imposed additional work on both farmers and farm planners, at the eleventh hour; if he will make allowance for this extra work by extending the application deadline appropriately; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18758/15]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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My Department has not issued new Terms and Conditions, it has amended the existing document, as it has done previously, to provide clarity to certain issues where this has been sought or where this was deemed necessary in the light of queries received.

The use of ranking for selection has always been a requirement of the GLAS Scheme and the basic ranking system has not changed – it remains the case that Tier 1 receives priority over Tier 2 and Tier 2 over Tier 3.  The Terms and Conditions of the Scheme have always made specific reference to the use of selection criteria in the ranking process and the most recent communications, which were included in a circular to all advisors, simply makes it clear that their use will be confined to Tier 3 applications only.  This is the minimum required under the terms of the agreed Rural Development Programme.  The selection criteria in question are included in the RDP and were discussed with the RDP Monitoring Committee some weeks ago, which includes representatives of the various stakeholder interests. 

My Department has also prepared a ‘ready-reckoner’ which has been provided to all advisors and this will allow them to predict the scores for the various applications they have prepared very quickly. This means that advisors now have a simple way of checking that each application exceeds the required pass-mark, while at the same time they can consider whether they should make any changes before submission.  For example, the selection of key actions that guarantee promotion from Tier 3 to Tier 2 is an established and well-recognised feature of GLAS, and one which I have consistently encouraged as a means of significantly increasing the probability of selection in this Tranche.

In the circumstances, I have no intention of extending the closing date for GLAS any further. As we approach that closing date, it is important that farmers and their advisors critically review their applications to ensure that the best possible projects are presented to the Department.