The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine has confirmed this evening (Wednesday, March 6) that all 9,000 farmers who applied for tranche 2 of the Agri Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES) will be accepted.
“The level of interest shown by farmers in ACRES since its launch has been hugely encouraging in terms of farmers engagement with environmental action.
“I was adamant that none of this engagement and ambition would be left behind,” Minister McConalogue detailed this evening.
He outlined that he had held discussions with the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform (DPENDER) to “explore all options to facilitate farmers”.
Minister McConalogue said: “This week, following further meetings between our two departments, I was delighted to reach an agreement with Minister Donohoe that all applicants to tranche 2 can be accepted into the scheme.
“This matches farmers’ commitment to the environment with the government’s own commitment.
“This is tangible, quantifiable delivery for the country and will, for example, mean that an additional area of approximately 100,000 hectares will be brought into meaningful environmental action. I want to thank Minister Donohoe for his engagement in achieving this positive result.”
According to Minister McConalogue DAFM will shortly get in touch with all tranche 2 applicants to provide an update in relation to their participation in ACRES.
“I look forward to seeing the additional environmental dividend that will be realised by this decision over the duration of the scheme,” the minister added.
ACRES
When tranche 1 of ACRES was first launched it was estimated that the €1.5 billion scheme would accommodate 50,000 farmers.
However an enthusiastic response to tranche 1 saw 46,000 farmers apply to the scheme.
The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) confirmed it would accept all valid applications for tranche 1 – which would have left only 4,000 places available in the scheme in tranche 2.
But by the time tranche 2 closed for applications in December 2023 a further 9,000 applications had been received.
Farming organisations had appealed to Minister Charlie McConalogue to find the necessary finance to ensure that any farmer who wanted to join ACRES tranche 2 would get a place on the scheme.
This evening Minister Charlie McConalogue confirmed that ACRES was set to become the country’s largest agri environment scheme and that eventually 55,000 farmers would be on board.