98% of the scorecards required to be completed by agricultural advisors for the Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES) have been submitted to the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM).
The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue confirmed the figure in response to a parliamentary question from Fianna Fáil TD Éamon Ó Cuív.
The closing date for scorecard submissions was Friday, September 29.
The minister extended the original deadline by four weeks to allow advisors additional time to complete their workload.
ACRES
Minister McConalogue told Deputy Ó Cuív that as of Tuesday, October 17 there were 45,650 active ACRES contracts under Tranche 1.
“28,945 of these contracts include parcels or actions where scorecards are required to be submitted by farm advisors. This excludes commonage scoring as these are submitted by the ACRES Co-operation (CP) teams.
“Over 98% of the scorecards have been submitted,” he said.
The minister added that the validation of the scorecards that have been submitted is “not an isolated process” and will “take place with all other necessary pre-payment validation checks”.
“In order to process payments as quickly as possible, the opportunity to appeal the scores allocated will be granted at a time after payments have been made,” McConalogue said.
Scheme
ACRES, is the central agri-environment climate measure in Ireland’s Common Agricultural Policy Strategic Plan (CSP) 2023-2027.
€1.5 billion in funding will be allocated for the lifetime of the results-based scheme, the largest amount ever committed to an agri-environment scheme.
Minister McConalogue has also advised farmers to start preparing for the opening of Tranche 2 of the scheme in early November.
Farmers who are interested in applying for Tranche 2 can now check on AgFood to see which approach – ACRES General or ACRES Co-operation – they are eligible for, as this will inform their decision to apply, and into which stream.
The Access Agreement facility for Tranche 2, which is the first step in the process, is now open. This is the online facility whereby farm advisors may submit an expression of interest for Tranche 2 of the scheme.
As part of Budget 2024, an additional €40 million was allocated to ACRES bringing the total scheme allocation to €200 million.
“The provision of additional funding will allow us to deliver on the government’s commitment to have 50,000 farmers participating in ACRES,” McConalogue said.
However, farming organisations have raised concerns that demand from farmers will far exceed the remaining 4,000 places on offer.