The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, has been urged to “do whatever is needed” to ensure all farmers who are participating in the Agri Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES) for the Cooperation Project (CP) stream receive their payment before Christmas.
Irish farm organisations have condemned the delay of payments for applicants to tranche one of the ACRES for the Cooperation Project (CP) stream.
It is understood that, of the 46,000 farmers that applied to tranche one of ACRES earlier this year, 18,000 entered the CP stream. These farmers will be the ones impacted by the delay in payments until February.
Following a meeting today (Wednesday, December 6) with the farm payment division of the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM), president of the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association (ICMSA) called the delays “unacceptable”.
McCormack said: “All those farmers need to be communicated with directly with a realistic and binding commitment to the date on which they will receive payment.
“There can be no more casual and unexplained postponements,” added.
McCormack stated that while delays and glitches are always a feature of new schemes, there is usually advance notice of delays that allows farmers to make covering arrangements
For farmers in ACRES General, it is expected that payments will commence on December 18.
The Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers Association (ICSA) also attended the meeting in Portlaoise, with the ICSA president Dermot Kelleher calling the payment delays “a devastating blow” for farmers.
“These farmers have been left out of pocket having completed the actions required and having expected payment in late November,” Kelleher said.
“Many farmers rely heavily on scheme payments to pay their basic bills and any delay can cause severe hardship.
“Planners, merchants, and a host of others are currently demanding payments from farmers who simply have no way of paying them,” he added.
IFA
The National Hill chair of the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA), Caillin Conneely, also called on Minister McConalogue to intervene and do “whatever is needed” to ensure all ACRES Co-Operation (CP) farmers receive their payment before Christmas.
“We’ve always been told by the department, even last week, that ACRES payments would land at the end of November.
“Now at the thirteenth hour, we’ve been pulled into a meeting and told that the best ACRES CP farmers can hope for is for payments to land from February 2024 at the earliest. It’s completely unacceptable.
“Nothing has changed with ACRES, so the department should have been ready for it. They have cocked up here and they need to sort it out quickly. We’re only weeks to Christmas and the bills that need to be paid are mounting up. There are thousands of farm families depending on this,” he said.
ACRES delay
President of the Agricultural Consultants Association (ACA), Noel Feeney said the delay is disappointing for farmers in these areas and the advisors.
“Advisors put a lot of hard work, seven days a week in doing the scoring. During the summer months we had a deadline and we started late because of IT problems, [but] we got our work completed,” he added.
Meanwhile Sinn Féin spokesperson on agriculture, Claire Kerrane TD called the payment delays “wholly unacceptable”.
“Farmers rely on farm payments and rightly expect their payments to be received on time for actions they have taken.
“All ACRES payments should be made before Christmas as intended, and there is no good reason that the minister and his department cannot deliver on this,” Deputy Kerrane added.