Green Low-Carbon Agri-Environment Scheme (GLAS) balancing payments worth almost €24 million will be paid to farmers this week, the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine has today (Wednesday, May 18) announced.
Charlie McConalogue said that a total of €23.7 million will be issued, ahead of schedule, to 39,000 farmers participating in the scheme.
The payments, which will reach farmer’s bank accounts this week, are being issued to 85% of GLAS participants.
The balancing payment represents the final 15% of the 2021 payment and completes the total payment for GLAS actions undertaken last year, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) said.
Payments will continue to issue in outstanding cases on a regular basis.
Commenting on the announcement, Minister McConalogue said:
“Meeting our scheme payment commitments to farmers is a key priority of mine and this continues our excellent record in recent times on this.
“These payments are an important cashflow boost to farmers at this time of year and of course are a recognition of their contribution to the significant environmental achievements in the GLAS scheme,” he said.
“Today’s payment of just under €24 million brings the total payments made to date under GLAS to €1.18 billion and I was very pleased to offer extensions to GLAS participants for the last two years so they could continue in the scheme,” McConalogue explained.
The minister noted that this investment will be surpassed in the next Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), under which €1.5 billion has been secured for the new “flagship environmental scheme”.
McConalogue is planning to launch that scheme before the end of this year.