The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue is understood to be confident that all farmers who applied for the new Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES) can be accommodated.
However, this will depend on funding being made available for an additional 16,000 places in the scheme by the government.
46,000 farmers applied to join the first tranche of the new agri-environmental scheme by the deadline which fell earlier this month.
Funding for 30,000 places in the scheme was earmarked as part of Budget 2023.
The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) previously indicated that a further 20,000 places would be made available in the second tranche next year.
Agriland now understands that the over-subscription rate is considered to be deliverable by Minister McConalogue, subject to the required additional funding being available.
The minister is believed to be currently working with officials within his department to explore what options are available to ensure that all successful applicants receive a payment in 2023.
This would ensure that farmers would not have a gap in payments between the ending of the Green Low-Carbon Agri-Environment Scheme (GLAS) and the rollout of ACRES.
It follows multiple calls from farming organisations and the Agricultural Consultants Association (ACA) on both the minister and the government to accommodate all farmers who have applied for ACRES.
Applications for the €1.5 billion scheme could only be submitted on behalf of farmers by an approved agricultural advisor.
Earlier this month, Charlie McConalogue told the Dáil that he wanted to increase places in ACRES.
“I would love to bring all 46,000 in, we want to be able to enable all farm families to be able to participate in this and to back them both in terms of their farm income and also in terms of doing work in terms of contributing to the environment,” he said.
However, he warned that this would be dependent on extra funding being allocated for additional places and the capacity of the department’s system to handle the demand.