The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue, has today, Wednesday, February 14, announced further detail on the interim payment to participants in Tranche I of the Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES).
It relates to those who have not yet received their advance payments for participation in the scheme.
Commenting on the announcement, Minister McConalogue said: “Further to my announcement of last Friday, February 9, of an interim payment for ACRES participants, I can confirm that the rate of this interim payment will be €4,000 for those in General and €5,000 for those in the Co-operation Project.
“I very much appreciate the importance of this payment to farmers, and I am fully committed to rewarding farmers for their environmental ambition.
“My intention is to have this interim payment delivered to those farmers affected across ACRES General and Co-operation by the end of this month.”
Concluding, the Minister said: “The ACRES payments will take into account the interim payments already made to the relevant participants and will issue in June for ACRES Tranche 1 participants.”
He added that in the intervening period, officials from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) would continue with the payment process as a key priority.
ACRES
Last Friday, February 9, the DAFM announced its intention to make an interim payment to participants in Tranche 1 of ACRES who have not yet received their advance payments.
Minister McConalogue said at that time, that following the commencement of advance payments to the scheme’s general participants last December, work has continued on the processing of further general advance payments.
“This work is ongoing and is a priority but is likely to take a further period to complete.
“In these circumstances, I have decided to make an interim, nationally-funded, payment to those farmers affected across ACRES General and Co-operation,” he said.