The way the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) “handled” Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES) payments has been described as a “shambles”.
The president of the Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers’ Association (ICSA), Sean McNamara said that the ACRES payment “shambles” “must never happen again”.
The DAFM recently announced its intention to make an interim payment to participants in ACRES Tranche 1 who have not yet received their advance payments.
Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue said that his intention is to have interim payments delivered by the end of the month.
Despite welcoming that interim payments will be made to ACRES participants by the end of February, McNamara said the DAFM still has “questions to answer”.
ACRES
In early December the ICSA was informed that around 18,600 farmers would have to wait until February 2024 for their payment, and now it appears there will be a “further delay”, he said.
The ICSA president raised the question why interim payments could not have been arranged before Christmas when “it was evident there was a problem”.
“We have also been repeatedly told that innovative solutions were not possible when it came to resolving the ACRES issue, yet now we have one.
“Has the EU suddenly changed its rules or how has this been made possible? We also now need answers on when exactly the rest of the money will be paid,” he said.
McNamara said it is “not good enough to leave so many farmers in the dark” about important payments, particularly those in the low-income beef, suckler, and sheep sectors.
“For most drystock farmers, scheme payments are what keeps their enterprises ticking over.
“They rely hugely on this money to cover bills, loan repayments, and to pay for expensive winter feeding and all the other input costs,” the ICSA president said.
“Not receiving a scheme payment when it’s due is not only hugely frustrating but causes untold financial repercussions. It’s a debacle that must never happen again,” he added.