The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue is set to attend a meeting of the Irish Natura and Hill Farmers’ Association (INHFA) taking place in his constituency next week.
Minister McConalogue will speak at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the INHFA’s Donegal branch, which will take place on Monday, February 27, at 8:00p.m in the Clanree Hotel in Letterkenny.
It’s expected that attendees will raise a number of issues facing farmers at the meeting, including questions that remain in relation to the Agri-Climate Rural Environmental Scheme (ACRES).
46,000 applications were made to the scheme, which has funding for only 30,000 places under tranche one, leaving 16,000 farmers in a gap between environmental schemes.
However, Minister McConalogue previously stated that he would inform applicants of their status “before the end of February”, meaning the INHFA meeting will be taking place close to this deadline.
The minister has told members of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine that his “objective, if possible, is to be in a position to accept all 46,000 applicants to the current tranche of the scheme”.
He added that there are “operational considerations” for the DAFM and that if all applicants cannot be accommodated in the first trance, he will “assess issues relating to gap years, etc.”.
It is also likely that the minister will face questions from the INHFA about his plans to take action on the crisis facing the sheep sector, which has come to the fore in recent weeks.
Numerous farming organisations and politicians have called for the minister to come forward with supports for sheep farmers.
Calls for a new payment of €30/ewe have been supported by rural TDs, with independent TD Mattie McGrath stating that the “dire income crisis on sheep farms is ravaging our hard-working farmers and pushing them to the brink of financial ruin”.