Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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243. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if his attention has been drawn to the situation on commonages whereby under GLAS 3 a person has to have made an application in 2014 for those lands under BPS and ANC to qualify; and his views on whether this is fair, when, if a person farms prove hill or lowland this does not apply to 2014 and in fact if a person has made application in 2016 to lowland or hill private lands, they qualify. [38991/16]

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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The commonage eligibility requirements for GLAS 3 applications have been updated from those which applied in GLAS 1 and GLAS 2.  For GLAS 3 commonage land declared for the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) in 2015 whether declared in previous years or not is eligible for the Scheme. This update was notified to all GLAS advisors and also published the circular on the Department’s website. 

In addition new entrants to farming in 2016 who declared commonage in their first BPS application in 2016 will also qualify.  Farmers with commonage receive priority access to the GLAS Scheme. 

Farmers with privately owned hill or lowland are not automatically afforded priority access to the scheme unless they have a Priority Environmental Asset (PEA) on their holding.

Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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244. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he proceeds with the rule of application on commonages of 2014 to qualify for GLAS, his views on whether a person who does not fit criteria and puts as many sheep as they like on a commonage, then that will leave other farmers uncompliant even though they may have BPS applications in 2014. [38992/16]

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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The commonage eligibility requirements for GLAS 3 applications have been updated from those which applied in GLAS 1 and GLAS 2.  For GLAS 3 commonage land declared for the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) in 2015 whether declared in previous years or not is eligible for the Scheme. This update was notified to all GLAS advisors and this information was also made available on the Department’s website. 

In addition, new entrants to farming in 2016 who declared commonage as part of their first BPS application in 2016 will also qualify.  Farmers with commonage receive priority access to the GLAS Scheme. 

Farmers with privately owned hill or lowland are not automatically afforded priority access to the scheme unless they have a Priority Environmental Asset (PEA) on their holding.

All shareholders farming a commonage are obliged under the Basic Payment Scheme to ensure that the land is maintained in an eligible condition as part of their commitments to support their annual Basic Payment Scheme payment.  Under the GLAS scheme payment for commonage action is justified on the basis that individual shareholders sign up to and implement a management plan prepared by an approved commonage advisor.