Heydon: 'I want to restore farmers' confidence in ACRES'
Sinn Féin spokesperson for agriculture, Martin Kenny, and the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Martin Heydon, have agreed that the situation with Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES) payments is "unacceptable".
Speaking in the Dáil yesterday (April 2), Deputy Kenny asked the minister about delays in ACRES payments for 2023 and 2024 because of problems with "processing and I.T".
He said: "The difficulty, as the minister knows, is that a farmer who walks into the cooperative to buy a bag of meal and then says he or she cannot pay for it because of an IT issue will not be given much of a hearing. Farmers need to get their money."
Minister Heydon highlighted the work that the Department of Agriculture, Food, and the Marine (DAFM) has been doing since he came into the role in January, 2025.
"I worked with the officials to look at the challenges in the system around the very complex nature of processing these new applications and getting the new system in place," Minister Heydon said.
"It was an ambitious approach to move to a results-based environmental system but, ultimately, farmers are delivering for us in a significant way.
"I understand the frustration there. My determination has been to fix this for them as quickly as possible.
"I understand where farmers are at. It is a continuing priority for me that we continue to work and I hope to have the vast majority of farmers sorted by the end of May, with the most difficult cases ended by the end of June," he added.
The minister said that he wants "permanent" solutions to the problem, and to "restore farmers' confidence in ACRES".
Deputy Kenny said he believes that the minister's ambition "is going to take an awful lot of work".
Kenny said: "We are now in 2025 and this scheme started in 2023. I know there can be teething problems but they should not go on for this long. Many is the animal out there that has a full set of teeth grown and has gone to slaughter since this started.
"They should pay farmers when farmers are owed money, and if everyone does what he or she is supposed to do, it should work smoothly and effectively, but it does not. It never has.
"I am not blaming the minister. It has been the same under every other minister for agriculture that I have seen. These schemes have never worked properly, and it would be a major job of work to change that and get them to work right."
Minister Heydon acknowledged the "frustration" that farmers are feeling over the delays.
He also said that when Ireland holds the EU presidency next year (2026), the country will have a "significant influence" over Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) negotiations.
"At the heart of the new CAP that I want to see developed is simplification. I know it has been talked about a lot in the past, but it has not been delivered," Minister Heydon said.
"We are quite constrained by the costs incurred-income forgone model, which is an impediment.
"On the basic point about ACRES, we will get there, and I want to see ACRES farmers paid, able to commit fully to the scheme and see it developed strongly into the future," he added.
