The Department of Agriculture is examining a limited number of cases where farmers were unable to submit GLAS plans before last months deadline, according to the Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney.
Almost 27,000 applications were submitted in the first tranche of GLAS applications.
The Minister has said this is very much in line with the projections he made when launching the scheme.
According to the Minister the online application system developed within the Department functioned extremely well but some issues did arise as can be expected with the roll out of any new IT system.
“Issues were dealt with as they arose but I am aware of a small number of cases, including the application of the person named, where it appears that attempts to submit valid applications before the scheme closed failed,” he said.
The Minster said the department is examining this limited number of cases with a view to accommodating the farmers involved.
However, he said this will only be possible where it can be clearly shown that it was not in fact possible to submit the application online.
For those who can’t get their application in for the first tranche, the Minister said the Department is planning to reopen GLAS again for submissions in September.
He said it is anticipated GLAS contracts will commence for those in the first tranche from October 1 with an estimated expenditure of €20m this year.
“Its no big deal if you don’t meet the GLAS deadline,” he said recently.
According to the Minister, farmers in the second tranche will formally be in GLAS for January 1.
By next year the Minister said there will be about 35,000 farmers in GLAS.