Foot Dragging on Glas Payments Will Not Be Tolerated – IFA
IFA Rural Development Chairman Joe Brady said the promise of GLAS payments this week has to be delivered upon and farmers will not tolerate any foot dragging on this issue. “It is vitally important that all 38,000 farmers in the scheme get a payment as frustration is building up in relation to processing of payments.”
Joe Brady said farmers have been promised the payment for some time. The Minister had said that payments would commence the week beginning December 19th. “It will not be acceptable if these payments drag into next week or beyond. Farmers have incurred costs such as planning and compliance fees and cannot have any payment delay as maintaining cashflow is vital.”
The Rural Development Chairman has welcomed the announcement that 14,000 have joined GLAS III, bringing the total number in the scheme to 52,000 farmers. All 14,000 farmers must be allowed in, including the 800 who are Tier 3.
He said contracts for GLAS III will commence from January 1st next and IFA is calling on the Minister to issue acceptance letters into the scheme over the next number of weeks.
Concluding, Joe Brady said that given the recent Teagasc outlook for Farm Incomes in 2017, direct payment schemes such as GLAS are a vital component of farm income support.
