The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Simon Coveney TD, announced recently, that the new €1.4bn agri-environment scheme GLAS, will open on Monday. Minister Coveney said his announcement marked the end of what had been a long and complex process of negotiation with the European Commission, out of which the new scheme has emerged virtually unchanged and strongly endorsed.
A total of €1.4bn has been allocated to GLAS over the lifetime of the programme, allowing a standard ‘package’ of up to € 5,000 for eligible farmers per annum, with an additional package of €2,000 per annum for those in GLAS+, in return for exceptional environmental commitment.
“While the formal approval process for the RDP as a whole has still to be completed, we now have a very clear understanding with the European Commission as to the shape of the new scheme, its priorities, the actions that should be applied and the rates of payment that will be made”, the Minister said. He continued, “Having reached this level of agreement, and in order to allow maximum time for farmers to prepare their proposals, I have decided to launch GLAS from Monday morning when preparation of applications can commence.”
The completed proposals may then be formally submitted when the first tranche opens, following confirmation of the agreed content of the Rural Development Programme, which is expected shortly.
The inclusion of an Agri Environment Climate Change Measure is compulsory under the Rural Development Regulation and no Rural Development Programme can be approved without first satisfying that requirement.
GLAS, which is co-funded by the EU, is an ambitious measure that aims to deliver overarching benefits in terms of the rural environment, focusing in particular on the preservation of habitats and species, on climate change mitigation, and on water quality. It marks a new departure for agri-environmental schemes, introducing a highly targeted approach, pinpointing in advance the key priority environmental assets that we need to protect and support over the lifetime of this programme and linking these directly to the individual farmers who possess and maintain these on their land.
The Minister announced that he was extending GLAS+ to all farms identified as habitats of endangered birds, including the hen harrier. This means that all such farmers will automatically receive up to €7,000 a year, if the area they have to manage is large enough.
The Minister also said he was simplifying the application process for Commonage farmers. The requirement for 50% participation has been reconfigured as a target, rather than an eligibility criterion, and all shareholders can now submit individual applications to join GLAS in their own right. Commonage advisers will also be given more time to complete the necessary plans.
The Minister said that the submission of individual applications to join GLAS by commonage shareholders would not be delayed while these plans were being prepared. The full plan would still have to be submitted before any applications could be approved, but adopting this approach would provide more time to advisers need to prepare these plans.
Minister Coveney concluded: “This is an exciting time. It’s the beginning of a new agri-environmental scheme and a very significant investment in rural Ireland, which will support families that have not yet felt the benefits of a recovering economy. It’s the beginning of a new way of doing business between the Department, agricultural advisers and farmers. I firmly believe it will deliver enormous dividends to rural Ireland, to the 30,000 Irish farmers we hope to see join GLAS in its first phase, and to the 20,000 more who will join in subsequent years.”
