The Irish Natura and Hill Farmers Association (INHFA) has said that a review of the Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES) must include “active engagement” with farm organisations.
Last week, Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue announced that a review of the €1.5 flagship agri-environmental scheme will take place over the coming months.
As the scheme approaches the end of its second year, the minister said that it is “timely to review the experience to date, to identify what has worked well, and to consider areas where lessons can be learned for the future”.
He said while “ACRES is working well for most farmers”, some have received lower scores and therefore lower payments than they might have expected.
Minister McConalogue has asked his department to meet with farm organisations, FAS advisors and the ACRES Co-operation (CP) teams to get their views, “with a view to coming to a conclusion by the end of the year”.
ACRES
INHFA national chair Pheilim Molloy welcomed that the a review of the scheme is being undertaken by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM).
However, he stressed that “any review must involve active engagement with the key stakeholders including farming organisations, such as the INHFA”.
The INHFA recently met with Minister McConalogue in Kerry and Donegal in a bid to find “workable solutions” to ongoing issues around ACRES payments.
“The 4,000 farmers currently awaiting balancing payments must be paid in addition to those farmers that are still awaiting their first ACRES payment,” Molloy said.
During the meetings the INHFA delegations, led by Pheilim Molloy in Donegal and John Joe Fitzgerald in Kerry, outlined the urgent need to get these payments made in addition to addressing the ongoing issues farmers are experiencing, especially in ACRES CP areas.
“These issues include lack of information on commonage scorecards which has for many farmers led to low scores and [interim] payment rates that has seen demands from the DAFM for the repayment of monies.
“In addition to this, farmers being denied the opportunity to address issues that could improve their score and the support through specific actions because the DAFM have failed to facilitate actions under the Non Productive Investments (NPIs) and Landscape Actions (LAs),” Molloy said.
During the meeting, Minister McConalogue was presented with a document outlining INHFA proposals to resolve many of the issues while also ensuring that all farmers currently waiting on payments are paid.
Molloy said that the minister agreed to facilitate a meeting between the INHFA and DAFM officials “as soon as possible”.
Molloy said that the INHFA proposals to pay all farmers on a score of eight can be the basis to ensure farmers are paid, “while also providing the time to address more fundamental issues that have dogged the scheme”.