GLAS payments totalling €114,179,553 have been issued to date, according to the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine.

In the past week an additional 322 GLAS payments have been issued to farmers around the country, figures show.

Between March 8 and March 15, close to 700 additional GLAS payments were completed. The number of payments processed in the most recent weekly run of payments more than halved, figures show.

Some 32,121 farmers have received a GLAS payment to date, out of the total of 36,843 successful applicants to the scheme, the Department confirmed.

This means that the Department has successfully processed payments for 87.2% of successful applicants.

Currently, 4,722 applicants are still awaiting a payment. This equates to 12.8% of the total number of successful applicants.

The Department has previously confirmed that it is currently working through the remaining cases and that payments are being issued on a weekly basis.

However, there are a few key issues which are holding up the majority of outstanding payments under both GLAS 1 and GLAS 2, it said.

Earlier this month, the INHFA’s Vincent Roddy claimed that farmers have lost confidence in the Minister for Agriculture, Michael Creed, over the delay in GLAS payments.

The delay in GLAS payments has left farmers frustrated, Roddy, who is the National Chair of the Irish Natura and Hill Farmers Association (INHFA), said.

The INHFA called on Oireachtas members to pass a motion compelling Minister Creed to instruct his Department officials to make the 85% payment immediatlely, of GLAS and AEOS monies, to any farmer that has yet to receive it.

Roddy voiced concerns that there is a possibility that many farmers’ payments could still be a significant time away based on current processing rates.