The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine has been urged to provide a “timeline” to farmers who are still waiting for their Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES) payments.
The Sinn Féin spokesperson on Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, Claire Kerrane said today (Tuesday, January 30) that Minister Charlie McConalogue needs to provide a “clear timeline” on when the payments will arrive in farmers’ bank accounts.
Last month Minister McConalogue said that €76.5 million would be paid out to more than 17,000 ACRES General participants in December.
However he also confirmed that ACRES Co-operation Project (CP) advance payments would not begin to issue until February 2024.
According to Deputy Kerrane the minister has failed to provide any further information to farmers on when these payments will begin.
She said that currently there are 28,084 farmers who still have not received an ACRES payment which includes 9,500 farmers participating in the General stream and 18,438 participating in CP.
Deputy Kerrane added: “I queried the minister on timelines for outstanding ACRES payments in December and again two weeks ago.
“Both times he stated that his department would continue to process General stream payments subject to validation checks, and that CP stream payments would commence in February.
“Yet, we have no further information on when CP stream payments will be made, despite us now being two days away from the start of February.”
ACRES
The Sinn Féin spokesperson on Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs said this was “unacceptable” for farmers who were expected to carry out work but have to “wait for payment”.
“After such significant delays, the very least the minister can do is provide a clear and concrete date for when farmers can expect to receive their ACRES payments,” Deputy Kerrane added.
Figures provided by the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Marine in response to a parliamentary question show that Co. Mayo has the highest number of farmers waiting for ACRES payments compared to any other county.
A total of 3,744 farmers in Co. Mayo currently have not received their payments.