The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Simon Coveney TD, has launched the second tranche of GLAS, the new agri-environmental scheme which replaces REPS and AEOS.

The first tranche of GLAS, which closed on 26 May this year, proved a huge success, attracting almost 27,000 applications. The second tranche will increase this to at least 35,000 and up to 40,000. The overall target for GLAS is to attract 50,000 farmers into the new scheme over its lifetime and Minister Coveney commented that it was clear that GLAS was well on its way to meeting that target.

In relation to the first tranche of GLAS, some of the headline outcomes were as follows:

-         180,000 ha of permanent pasture will be conserved 

-         8,000 km of water courses will be protected

-         40,000 ha of endangered bird habitat will be brought under sustainable management

-         50,000 ha of other privately-owned Natura habitat will be protected

-         2,700 commonages (nearly  60% of all commonages in the country) will be brought under new Commonage Management Plans

-         1,300km of new hedgerows will be planted

-         2,000 new groves of native trees will be established

-         1,000 new orchards of traditional Irish varieties will be planted

-         6,000 km of stone walls will be protected

-         6,000 new habitats will be created for threatened solitary bee species

-         90,000 bird boxes and 80,000 bat boxes will be erected

-         3,000 archaeological monuments will be protected

-         8,000 ha of wild bird cover will be planted, providing up to 12,000 tonnes of winter feed for wild birds.

“On the basis of the 27,000 GLAS plans submitted to date, we have already met or exceeded RDP targets for Low Input Permanent Pasture, Protection of Watercourses, Laying Hedgerows, Planting New Hedgerows, Planting of Traditional Orchards, Bird, Bee and Bat Habitats, Wild Bird Cover and Stone Wall Maintenance,” the Minister said.

For the second tranche of GLAS, a number of adjustments to the available actions are being made.  Some, such as those to protect farmland birds and Natura land, will make it easier for farmers to adapt to the new regimes required, and will encourage even greater uptake of these measures.  Others respond to the fact that we have achieved or exceeded targets in some areas such as Low Input Permanent Pasture (LIPP), new hedgerows and traditional orchards.  

“GLAS is a target-driven environmental scheme and from tranche-to-tranche we will be adjusting the menu of options to ensure we achieve the right mix over the course of the programme as a whole ,” Minister Coveney said today. “Our top priority remains to attract in farmers with Tier One Environmental Assets, like endangered birds, Natura habitat, commonage land and high-status watercourses.  I expect that a large proportion of the intake from Tranche 2 will be drawn from this category. “

The Minister announced that he was publishing the Terms and Conditions for the second Tranche of GLAS immediately, along with the detailed Specification for Tranche 2 actions.  He asked farmers and their advisors to read these carefully.  The live system for applications will then be opened will remain open for some six weeks.

Date Released: 19 October 2015