Interim arrangements for Commonage Management Plans have been announced under the GLAS scheme.

The Minster for Agriculture, Michael Creed, announced that the Department is putting arrangements in place to allow for the submission of interim Commonage Management Plans by the end of October 2016.

Minster Creed said the move comes in order to maximise the number of GLAS participants included under the final Commonage Management Plan process.

This process will ensure that payments can issue to all eligible GLAS participants at the same time later this year.

Under GLAS, farmers can receive a maximum basic payment of €5,000 per annum on the basis of the range and quantity of environmental actions they deliver as part of their GLAS plan.

On the basis of commitments made by participants under the first two tranches of the Scheme, Commonage Management Plans will be prepared for a significant number of commonages nationally, the Department says.

Minister Creed also said that since GLAS launched in 2015 it has been a major success with over 38,000 applications approved for participation in the first two tranches of the scheme.

“This represents the highest number of applicants ever approved for participation in an agri-environment scheme in a single year.

“It has also been extremely successful in the range of actions undertaken by participants in the five year scheme.” Minister Creed said.

This announcement will come as welcome news to many farmers participating in the scheme who are farming commonage.

As earlier this month, the Irish Natura and Hill Farmers Association (INHFA) expressed concerns that GLAS payments would not be paid out to commonage farmers this Autumn.