Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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166. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he has further considered the position of those persons still participating in the AEOS whose contracts do not finish in 2016 and who have to make the choice whether they will finish out their AEOS scheme or leave it and join GLAS 3, in view of the fact that no commitment has been given that there will be a GLAS 4 round if they opt to complete their AEOS contacts; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37877/16]

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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I recently launched the third tranche of GLAS with a view to bringing participation in the Scheme to at least 50,000 farmers and to utilise the full budget allocated to GLAS.  The level of interest in the third tranche coupled with the level of participation in the Scheme from the first two tranches indicates that when the third tranche is finalised the available budget for the scheme will be fully utilised.  

AEOS participants do, of course, have the opportunity now to transform their AEOS contract into a GLAS contract in the third tranche which would allow them benefit from a further 5 years participation in the new agri-environment scheme GLAS.