Brendan Griffin (Kerry, Fine Gael)
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38. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine to issue payment to a person (details supplied) under the green low carbon agri-environment scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9291/16]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The first person named has been approved under Tranche 1 of GLAS with a contract start date of 1 October 2015. GLAS applicants with a start date of 1 October 2015 are eligible for a 2015 part-year payment in respect of 2015 eligible actions, covering the three month period 1 October 2015-31 December 2015.

The application of the person named has successfully completed the pre-payment validation checks in respect of the 2015 part-year payment. The first instalment of the payment due issued to the person named on the 23 December 2015. The balancing payment will issue this quarter, after all required regulatory checks are completed.

An application for Tranche 2 of the GLAS Scheme for the second person named was received on the dedicated GLAS online system on the 4 December 2015.

The unprecedented level of applications to the Scheme has meant that for GLAS 2, priority is being given to what are called Tier 1 and Tier 2 candidates, i.e. those who either manage key environmental assets like endangered birds, protected habitats or high-quality water courses, or who have committed to undertake particularly valuable environmental actions like growing feed-crops for wild birds, adopting low-impact tillage techniques or using low-emission slurry spreading methods.

Farmers had been urged to present the highest standard environmental plans under GLAS 2, and to adopt actions that would promote them from Tier 3 to a higher tier, thereby significantly increasing the chance of selection. Over 80% of applicants in this second tranche of GLAS opted to do so, and with the funding available were approved.

As the application for the second person named was ranked as a Tier 3 application it was not selected into the scheme.

A third tranche of GLAS (GLAS 3) will open later this year and the second person named and any applicant who was unsuccessful in the second tranche will have the opportunity now to re-examine their proposed farm-plan, in consultation with their advisor, and see how it might be improved to increase their chance of selection under GLAS 3.