Applications for GLAS by Commonage Farmers

In response to a Parliamentary Question asked by Eamon O Cuiv T.D. the Minister for Agriculture has provided information on the number of commonage farmers in each county and on how many of these have initiated GLAS application. The data makes for interesting reading, particularly when combined with the information on applications for the GLAS Commonage Advisory role. The data below was provided by the Minister on April 23rd.

I would not pay too much attention to the information on the number of GLAS applications with actions. This does not of itself indicate that these cases will progress to a full application to the scheme. What is clear is that in the minor commonage counties the performance is very poor. No applications at all in Meath, only 4 in Kildare and 3 in Kilkenny.

In the main commonage counties, the level of interest hovers between 10 & 30% which is reasonable in the circumstances. Of greater concern is the very slow rate of applications for the commonage advisor roles. Without an advisor there will be no commonage management plan and the glas applications will fail.

The number of advisors who have expressed an interest cannot hope to deal with more than 5% of commonages in the time available. This is where the real bottleneck that threatens the schemes rollout lies. It must be addressed and soon.

The breakdown of these applications within individual commonages is not available but we can expect them to fall into 3 main categories.

First, commonages with no interest at all. Secondly commonages where 1 or 2 individuals have applied and where no application has been made for the commonage advisor role and finally those with a good level of interest and where an advisor has or is in the process of applying for the commonage advisor role. The group of greatest concern are those where GLAS applications have been made by a small number of shareholders but where no commonage advisor has undertaken to prepare the plan. There is a very real danger that these farmers could face considerable difficulties. While the Dept. have said that they will be accommodated, it remains to be seen how this will be done.

What is certain though is that the July 3rd closing date for the completion of commonage management plans is not attainable and must be pushed back. The pressure to push the BPS closing date back makes the pushing back of the CMP date all the more urgent.

County	Number of GLAS applications initiate which have Commonage	Number of GLAS applications with actions and have Commonage	National number of farmers with Commonage
Carlow	42	29	172
Cavan	17	12	133
Clare	78	44	376
Cork	196	106	974
Donegal	568	416	2700
Dublin	11	2	44
Galway	414	276	2668
Kerry	417	294	1921
Kildare	4	4	62
Kilkenny	3	1	35
Laois	13	11	108
Leitrim	96	69	472
Limerick	11	5	57
Longford	8	5	58
Louth	18	10	165
Mayo	727	510	3273
Meath	0	0	12
Monaghan	0	0	3
Offaly	5	3	41
Roscommon	28	13	160
Sligo	94	61	491
Tipperary	56	23	322
Waterford	52	11	179
Westmeath	2	1	26
Wexford	17	8	105
Wicklow	47	31	319
TOTAL	2924	1945	14876