Thomas Pringle (Donegal South West, Independent)
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36. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the reason he is downgrading the low input permanent pasture measure in the latest round of the green low-carbon agri-environmental scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [34206/15]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The first tranche of GLAS proved hugely successful attracting nearly 27,000 applications in all. Applications were received from every single county and virtually every action was selected at some stage. On the basis of the plans submitted for the 27,000 applications received to date, we have already met or exceeded RDP targets for a number of different actions, including Low Input Permanent Pasture. For the second tranche of GLAS, therefore, I am revisiting the various actions that will be available to farmers in the light of the substantial progress made to date.

GLAS differs from previous schemes in that it adopts a very targeted approach to meeting its environmental objectives and the RDP includes a provision for review and reassessment after the first tranche. Given the very high uptake of Low Input Permanent Pasture (LIPP), and the fact that it has substantially exceeded its targets, it is proposed to adjust the provision of this action under the next tranche. As things stand, over 20% of the entire budget for GLAS is set to be paid on Low Input Permanent Pasture, and we clearly cannot continue to accept additional hectarage at the same rate indefinitely. However, it is important to note that it will still be possible to take up to 10 hectares of either LIPP or Traditional Hay Meadow as before, but the LIPP component will be limited to 5 hectares. While this means that we will still see permanent pasture coming into GLAS, I hope it will persuade more farmers to take the hay meadow option, which is well behind target, and which delivers the same payment per hectare.

These proposed changes for Tranche 2, including the rebalancing of LIPP, have been notified to the European Commission and their final response is expected very shortly.