2021 GLAS payments amounting to €118m will arrive in almost 34,000 farmers’ bank accounts this week.
That is according to Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue.
This morning (Wednesday, November 10th), he confirmed that the DAFM is commencing GLAS payments this week ahead of schedule.
This payment run will bring the total it has issued to farmers under the scheme to date to almost €1.1billion
The Minister said:
“This is a week ahead of schedule and farmers across the country will benefit from these payments.”
“It is always a key priority of mine and the Department to issue payments as quickly as possible.”
“I know how critical they are to farmers and their businesses. At a rate of 85% of the full annual payment, these advance payments are an important support to farmers in the delivery of key environmental actions and, of course, are important to the wider rural economy.”
McConalogue said he previously outlined that a “key” priority for his DAFM is efficiently issuing scheme payments to farmers.
“I am very pleased that these payments are commencing one week ahead of our stated target of mid-November.”
He outlined that the DAFM has paid out over €1.12 billion to
Irish farmers since commencing the GLAS scheme in October 2015.
The Minister also added that “the relationship between agriculture and the environment is more important than ever”.
“The enthusiasm of farmers to participate in agri-environment schemes, such as GLAS, shows their commitment to environmental action.
GLAS’ environmental benefits
To date, he said the scheme has delivered a range of benefits across the “key” priorities of water, biodiversity and climate.
He highlighted the following environmental benefits from GLAS:
- The Low Input Permanent Pasture and the Traditional Hay Meadow actions are delivering over 320,000 hectares of diverse grassland species;
- Planting over 20,000 hectares of Wild Bird Cover, providing winter feed for farmland birds;
- Also, planting over 1.6m trees;
- Over 4,500 farmers are using Low Emission Slurry Spreading technologies to spread slurry.
He also confirmed that GLAS 2021 advance payments will continue to issue weekly as the DAFM clears and approves cases.
“Any scheme participants with outstanding actions or documentation to return to the department are asked to do so immediately so that their payment can be processed.”
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