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Minister McConalogue announces commencement of GLAS-Plus payments this week

The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue T.D., today announced that payments to GLAS-Plus participants have started this week. This will see a payment of €3.6million made to 3,200 participants in the GLAS scheme who receive this bonus payment for delivering exceptional environmental output. This bonus payment is being delivered four weeks ahead of schedule this year.

In addition to the commencement of the GLAS-Plus payment, a large tranche of more 2020 advance payments under the scheme were made this week. These payments are worth €11 million to farmers and mean that over €14 million has been made to GLAS participants in the last two weeks. In total 2020 payments worth over €152 million have now been made to farmers.

The Minister said, “I am very pleased that GLAS payments are issuing at an accelerated rate this year. GLAS-Plus payments are commencing this week four weeks ahead of schedule. This brings GLAS payments to date to a total of over €152.6 million. The rate of issue of these payments will be welcomed by farmers in every county in Ireland. I am particularly pleased that these payments are commencing ahead of our stated targets this year and at an accelerated rate in light of the impact of Covid-19 restrictions.”

The Minister concluded, “In addition to the early issue of payments GLAS participants will have the certainty of participating in the scheme again next year if they wish thanks to the additional funding allocation I secured in the budget. Achieving this level of funding is important to ensure that we give certainty to scheme participants when transitioning from one RDP to another. Subject to clearance from the European Commission on our proposed RDP amendment, these GLAS scheme participants will be contacted directly by my Department in early December with full details on how to extend their participation for 2021”.

Notes for editors:

The GLAS Helpdesk can be contacted at 076 1064451. 

Farmers can also submit any queries they may have be email to GLAS@agriculture.gov.ie .

Regular pay runs will be in place over the coming weeks to issue payments as GLAS cases are cleared for payment.  Any GLAS participants with outstanding documentation including LESS or Rare Breed Forms or those who have been contacted by my Department with queries in relation to their GLAS participation or BPS application should respond as soon as possible in order to facilitate the early issue of payments.