Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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260. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of applications received under the green low-carbon agri-environment scheme, tranche II, by tier 1, 2 and 3 and by county; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [46026/15]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The GLAS online application system closed for the creation of new applications at midnight on Monday December 14. In light of the large volume of applications on the system, my Department has allowed advisors until 6pm Friday December 18 to finalise any which have not yet been submitted.

Interest in joining the scheme under Tranche 2 has been extremely high, and I am particularly happy to see so many Tier 1 and Tier 2 candidates. As already indicated, applications from these candidates will receive priority when allocating places under Tranche 2. Full details of applications, including a county-by-county breakdown by Tier, will not be available until all applications have been submitted, but the most recent informationnationally is as follows:

A total of 19,105applications have been created on the online system, with following breakdown by Tier: Tier 1 - 8,676; Tier 2 - 4,816; and Tier 3 - 5,613.

Of these, a total of 13,705had been formally submitted up to yesterday morning, broken down as follows: Tier 1 - 6,866; Tier 2 - 4,151; and Tier 3 - 2,688.

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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261. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will accept all eligible applications submitted under the green low-carbon agri-environment scheme, tranche 2, given the underspend to date under the agri-environment options scheme 2014 to 2020; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [46027/15]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The GLAS online application system closed for the creation of new applications at midnight on Monday December 14. In light of the large volume of applications on the system, my Department has allowed advisors until 6pm Friday December 18 to finalise any which have not yet been submitted.

It is clear that interest in the Scheme is very strong and that Tranche 2 is well on target to reach the forecasts set when I launched the Tranche. I am particularly happy to see so many Tier 1 and Tier 2 candidates. As already indicated, applications from these candidates will receive priority when allocating places under Tranche 2. The precise number to be offered places will be determined by reference to the environmental priorities set for the Scheme and the overall budget available, with an eye also to ensuring adequate provision remains for Tranche 3 of the scheme.