Fianna Fáil has hit out at the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine for refusing to answer questions about completed applications for the new Green Low-Carbon Agri-Environment scheme.

Spokesperson on Agriculture, Éamon Ó Cuív TD, said there has been considerable confusion among farmers applying to GLAS, compared to the old REPS scheme.

He said: "Farmers always knew where they stood with REPS – this is not the case with GLAS. In a reply to my most recent parliamentary question to provide a county by county breakdown, Minister Coveney once again refused to give the number of completed GLAS applications. Instead, he has quoted the total number of applications, which currently stand at 15,037.

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"It is time that the Minister told us how many completed applications have been received and the average amount of money being sought by these applicants. It seems the Minister is in deep denial if he thinks that the targeted 30,000 applications will be completed by May 22nd.

"Combined with this, Minister Coveney is placing Irish farmers in a very precarious financial position as only completed applications submitted by this deadline are being considered for approval. To compound this further, he refuses to guarantee to pay all eligible participants in 2015.

"This is disgraceful and is a further insult to farmers who are already struggling with high costs and low prices."

(CD/JP)