Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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29. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the current uptake of commonage farmers in the GLAS scheme; the number of commonage management plans submitted to date; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37708/16]

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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Almost 15,000 farmers declare commonage annually on their Basic Payment Scheme application. To date 6,578 of these farmers have been approved into the GLAS scheme and I expect this figure to increase when GLAS Tranche 3 applications are submitted, assessed and approved into the scheme.

GLAS is a voluntary scheme and is ideally suited for farmers with commonage as they are assured priority access to the scheme, so I would continue to encourage commonage farmers not already in GLAS to consider submitting an application for GLAS 3.

Commonage Advisors have been assigned to prepare Commonage Management Plans (CMPs) for over 2,700 commonages. The date for completion of these CMPs has been extended to 1 September 2017 to facilitate the inclusion of GLAS 3 farmers thus ensuring these plans will include all GLAS participants.

To facilitate the processing of 2016 GLAS payments for GLAS 1 and GLAS 2 participants I have put in place interim Commonage Management Plan arrangements which confirm that CMPs are underway and that Commonage farmers have committed to meeting their minimum stocking density by end of 2016. All GLAS 1 and GLAS 2 farmers who have signed up to the interim CMPs will be included in the 2016 GLAS payment checks with a view to issuing payment before the end of the year.