The deadline for submission of GLAS applications has been extended.

According to the Department of Agriculture, the GLAS deadline is to be extended to midnight on May 26.

This comes in the wake of only half the anticipated final number of GLAS applications being submitted on the Department of Agriculture’s online system.

Latest figures from the Department of Agriculture show that to date over 34,000 applications have been created on the system.

The number of completed applications submitted to the GLAS system as of today (Thursday) is 18,000.

The submit facility on the GLAS online system was activated two weeks ago and meant that applications could formally be submitted on the Departments online system.

Minister Coveney has previously said he did not envisage any further extension to the GLAS deadline for receipt of GLAS applications despite concerns among some that the time allowed is too tight.

He said he had already extended the closing date from the April 30 to May 22 and did not envisage any further extension to that.

The Minister’s decision at the time not to further extend the GLAS deadline came in the wake of news that Teagasc recently informed 2,000 farmers that it would be unable to process their applications due to progress in the completion of GLAS plans being very slow.

It said this was due to issues outside of Teagasc and its partner in the GLAS service FRS control.

The Minister stressed that there could be no further extension after Tuesday, pointing out that the closing date for the Basic Payment Scheme (May 29) was also looming and he wanted to ensure that advisors had time to process applications for that as well.