The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) has issued an update on the progress of payments to farmers under the Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES).
As of Wednesday, January 10, 9,500 ACRES General participants and 18,438 ACRES Co-operation (CP) participants were still waiting to receive an ACRES payment.
Over 17,100 ACRES General participants received payments of over €76 million in December 2023.
According to DAFM, the remaining 9,500 General participants will be issued their payments “early in 2024, subject to validation checks”.
The 18,400 CP participants will have to wait until February of this year to receive their payment.
The balancing payments are scheduled to commence in May 2024 for both General and CP participants.
The DAFM stated: “While it was initially planned to take in applicants in two tranches, with 30,000 in Tranche 1, it was decided that all valid applications submitted were to be accepted, and there are now just under 46,000 farmers actively involved in the scheme, 18,438 of whom are in the ACRES Co-operation Project (CP) stream.
“Over 17,100 ACRES General participants received payments of over €76 million in December 2023. The remaining approx. 9,500 ACRES General participants will continue to be processed for payment with payments issuing early in 2024, subject to validation checks.
“For CP participants, payments will commence in February to over 18,400 eligible participants.
“Balancing payments are scheduled to commence in May 2024 for both ACRES General and ACRES CP participants,” the department confirmed.
ACRES Tranche 2
The new Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) National Rural Development Committee chair John Curran from Co. Meath has said: “All farmers who applied under Tranche 2 of ACRES must be accommodated. We cannot be limited to 50,000.”
The Rural Development Committee chair said that one of his immediate focus priorities is ACRES.
“We either want to achieve our environmental targets or we don’t. The department also needs to realise that many low-income families, particularly those in vulnerable sectors, rely on agri-environment programmes to survive,” he said.
On the broader issue of payments, John Curran said there cannot be a repeat of what happened last year with delays to farm scheme payments.
“It’s completely unacceptable and no other sector would accept it,” he said.
Curran said that Targeted Agriculture Modernisation Schemes (TAMS 3) was a “complete non-event in 2023”.
“The thousands of farmers around the country who made applications for TAMS last spring have to know where they stand.
“Farmers cannot be at the mercy of department inefficiencies.
“They need to get real, make direct and proactive contact with farmers and farm representatives, in good time, to let them know where they stand. There is just too much at stake,” he said.