Farmers will be allowed to make repayments on the Agri Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES) interim payment through that scheme rather than other schemes, according to the Irish Natura and Hill Farmers’ Association (INHFA).
The expectation had been that farmers who received an overpayment on the ACRES interim payment that was made earlier this year would have to make repayment through reductions in their next payment in any scheme, which for most impacted farmers would have been the Areas of Natural Constraint (ANC) Scheme.
However, according to the INHFA, Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue confirmed to the farm organisation during a meeting that affected farmers will not see non-ACRES payments reduced as a result of the overpayment, a move the INHFA welcomed.
In recent weeks, farm organisations have raised concerns over the potential reduction in non-ACRES payments in cases where farmers who received too much money on their ACRES interim payment.
The once-off flat rate interim payment – which was not results-based – was made earlier this year due to delays in processing the expected results-based payments that farmers should have received.
That delay is understood to have been caused by issues with the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine’s IT systems, compounded with a new scheme design compared to previous agri-environmental schemes.
However, as the processing of payments got underway and continued, it became apparent that some farmers received an interim payment higher than what they would have got if they had received the scheduled ACRES payment on time.
It is thought that some 6,000 farmers are affected.
The INHFA said that the decision to allow farmers make repayments through ACRES “will alleviate concerns around cash-flow in September, when there are major demands at farming level and in many families, especially when there are children going back to school or attending college”.
According to Vincent Roddy, the association’s president, affected farmers can expect correspondence from the department in the coming days.
Farmers who wish to defer the recovery of money until their next ACRES payment will need to notify the department of this by specific email.
Roddy also said that the INHFA was informed that the next ACRES payment will be made this November.
Roddy also said: “With regard to other ACRES concerns the INHFA delegation pushed the minister and his department officials that included secretary-general Brendan Gleeson on the need to address ongoing issues around the scheme.
These points, the INHFA president said, included the issuing of payment to the 13,000 farmers still awaiting a balancing payment, the issuing of the habitat scorecards, and the go-ahead on actions applied for under the non-productive investments (NPIs).