Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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13. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the status of the roll-out of the green low-carbon agri-environment scheme including the expected expenditure in 2016; the estimated expenditure for the period 2015 to 2020; if applicants under tranche 2 will be accepted subject to eligibility; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2305/16]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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I am pleased to say that 2015 has proved to be the most successful year ever in the development and implementation of any agri-environment scheme. The level of interest in the GLAS scheme has seen some 26,000 applications approved in first tranche of the GLAS scheme and the submission of more than 14,000 further applications under Tranche 2 of the Scheme which closed in mid-December 2015.

At the end of December 2015, my Department began processing a first instalment of the 2015 part-year payments for GLAS Tranche 1 participants. This payment is in respect of the three month period 1 October -31 December 2015 for those applicants with a 1 October start-date, and with actions which were payable in 2015.

Some 17,500 GLAS farmers received a first instalment of their 2015 payment in December, with an average payment of €650 per applicant. The Department is continuing to process applications which are eligible for a 2015 part-year payment and further payments will be processed by the end of January. The balancing payments in respect of 2015 payments are scheduled to be processed in May 2016 when all GLAS 2015 inspections have been completed. This 2015 part-year balancing payment will include the GLAS+ payments for eligible applications.

It is important to note that these part-year payments are purely in respect of actions that were applicable to 2015 and cannot be used as a basis to extrapolate the average value of a GLAS contract over a full year. Farmers will only see the full value of their contracts when payments are calculated for 2016, the first full year of their five-year contracts. Current indications are that for Tranche 1 participants , the average value will be of the order of €4,200, not including GLAS Plus payments. In respect of GLAS Plus, the latest estimates indicate that some 1,400 participants from the first tranche have combined eligible actions which exceed the maximum annual payment of €5,000. These will therefore qualify for GLAS Plus and on average stand to see their annual payment increase to around €6,500.

The second tranche of GLAS closed for submission of applications in mid December. This second tranche has resulted in a further 14,000 applications to GLAS and my Department is currently assessing these applications in line with the requirements set out in the scheme Terms and Conditions to ascertain which applications can be approved for GLAS. I expect all eligibility checks to be completed shortly and farmers notified in writing of the outcome of their applications by the end of January.

Given the level of interest so far in the Scheme, as manifested in the higher than expected response to the first two tranches of GLAS, I am very satisfied that our overall target of 50,000 participants will be fully achieved. The level of applications to GLAS under both tranches in 2015 will result in the funding committed to the Scheme for 2016 being fully utilised and if the level of interest shown to date is maintained, I would expect that the full budget allocated to GLAS under the Rural Development Programme 2014-2020 will be utilised.