Payments for the Green Low-Carbon Agri-Environment Scheme – GLAS – are to be brought forward by a month to help with farm cashflows.
This is a sensible move by the Department of Agriculture because farm finances are under particularly severe pressure in the current COVID-19 crisis.
More than 42,300 farmers benefit from balancing payments totalling €26 million for the scheme, which incentivises the promotion of biodiversity, the protection of water quality and the adoption Climate Action measures on farms.
GLAS is important for the rural environment and it is right that farmers should be supported in this way at a time when the sustainability of the domestic food supply chain is vital for the nation.
Payments are expected to reach farm accounts from the beginning of next week, Monday April 20.