Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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254. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine to detail the number of farmers admitted into the green low-carbon agri-environment scheme with a start date of 1 October 2015; the average annual payment approved; the number of these farmers who may expect payment before Christmas 2015; the expected expenditure in 2015; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40054/15]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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To date a total of 24,830 farmers have been approved under the GLAS scheme of which 22,898 have been given a 1 October commencement date. There are an additional circa 2,000 applications that have had validation queries raised on them, which are being examined systematically by my Department. I expect the vast bulk of these to be reviewed and re-processed very shortly.

The information sought on the number to be paid and the average payment will not be available until the pre-payment validations are completed.

The 2015 estimates include €20m for GLAS payments in the current year, which will be sufficient to make an 85% first instalment payment to all those with a 1 October commencement date who are approved for part-year payment in 2015.