Denis Naughten (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Independent)
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100. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the reason low input permanent pasture and traditional hay meadows have been capped at 5 ha; hedge planting has been excluded from the new round of the green low-carbon agri-environmental scheme; 10,000 places will be made available under this round and farmers will struggle to obtain 2,500; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35145/15]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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On the basis of the plans submitted for the 27,000 applications received to date under Tranche 1 of GLAS, it is clear that we have already met or exceeded our targets for the entire RDP period for some GLAS actions. These include the Low Input Permanent Pasture action and the Planting of New Hedgerows. For this reason, it is proposed to adjust the provision for the Low Input Permanent Pasture (LIPP) action under the second tranche of GLAS, in recognition of the fact that we have already met all our targets. As things stand, over 20% of the entire budget for GLAS will be directed towards payments of this one action. However, 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. Instead, I would like to see more farmers avail of the Traditional Hay Meadow option, which attracts the same rate of payment.

In relation to the planting of new hedgerows, I am proposing to suspend this action for Tranche 2, along with the planting of traditional orchards. Both actions have met their targets for the entire RDP, and there are concerns about the availability of planting stock. I will, however, review this for Tranche 3.

These proposed changes have been notified to the European Commission, as required, and their final response is expected very shortly.

As regards the number of places reserved for Tranche 2, I have always made it clear that the objective was to have 35,000 farmers approved into GLAS and in payment by end-2016.  As things stand, we have nearly 27,000 applications in Tranche 1 alone and I hope that the vast majority of these will be approved into the scheme.  Notwithstanding that, my intention remains to take in a full additional 10,000 in Tranche 2, which if achieved will result in the combined target for Tranches 1 and 2 being exceeded. I do not expect the changes outlined to certain actions for Tranche 2 will seriously impinge on anyone’s ability to develop an effective GLAS plan, or to draw down the optimum payment for their farm under the new scheme. On the contrary, many of these changes I intend to introduce, including those for the various bird actions, will make it much easier to draw up an effective plan at farm level.