Farmer Patience Running out on Implementation of Glas

IFA President Eddie Downey has said that farmers’ patience is running thin in relation to the slow progress in the implementation of vital farm schemes, such as GLAS.

Eddie Downey said that he has raised this issue with both EU Commissioner Phil Hogan and Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney in recent days and has clearly outlined that the delays in implementation are unacceptable as these schemes are vital to support low income farmers.

In relation to the GLAS scheme, Minister Coveney must open the scheme without delay with all farmers being accepted into the scheme and a substantial payment being made in 2015.

The Rural Development Programme is a vital part of the support structure to Irish farmers and low income farmers are very dependent on the payments. The early agreement of the RDP in Brussels is now an urgent priority as already some member states have had their plans approved. The Minister must apply the maximum pressure to ensure the Irish plan is passed without any further delay.