Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail)
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47. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will provide an update on the total number of applications made under the new green low-carbon agri-environmental scheme; the number and percentage of farms with commonage lands which have submitted an application under the scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26103/15]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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I welcome the fact that 26,935 applications were submitted in the first tranche of GLAS applications, which is very much in line with the projections I made when launching the scheme.  Farmers have shown a keen interest in the Scheme and have worked along with their advisors to apply in significant numbers. In doing so they have committed to actions and farming prescriptions which are expected to deliver substantial environmental benefits in the years ahead. These actions will improve and maintain our water quality, will encourage biodiversity and the maintenance of valuable habitats, while also promoting climate change mitigation. These farmers are the custodians of our farmed landscape and in joining GLAS they are continuing the important conservation work which has already been carried out in previous agri-environment schemes.

The management of our uplands by means of commonage management plans is given the highest priority in GLAS and I welcome the fact 3,934 applications in respect of just under 2,700 commonages, or well over half of all commonages in the country, have been received.  This represents 30% of all commonage farmers and is a major step towards the establishment of greatly enhanced management regimes for these upland areas. A similar number of commonage farmers are already managing their commonage lands through AEOS and intend to see out their contracts, confident in the knowledge that they will receive priority access to GLAS when they do decide to join. Others may have waited in order to see if a commonage management plan is commenced on their particular commonage. This option was open to farmers, given that commonage management plans can be joined at a later date and that priority access remains open to these farmers.

While it is clear, therefore, that there are commonage farmers who have not yet applied for the Scheme I am very optimistic that the numbers will increase in due course. A phased recruitment to both GLAS and to the various Commonage Management Plans was specifically anticipated in the scheme design, and specific provision has been made to accommodate these farmers on that basis.