Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue has today (Monday, December 23) announced that over €172 million in Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES) advance payments has been issued to farmers in recent weeks.
The minister said that these payments relate to farmers participation in the agri-environmental scheme in 2024.
He said that this brings the total received by farmers in the scheme to €419 million, following the payment of €247 million for their 2023 participation.
ACRES
Minister McConalogue said that ACRES is “an ambitious scheme which seeks to deliver environmental improvements through a wide range of actions, including complex new results-based components”.
The minister said that advance payments of €21.9 million are issuing to 5,153 ACRES participants today in respect of their participation in the scheme in 2024.
This is the third pay run in respect of 2024 advance payments, which began in November, and today’s payments bring to €172.1 million the total amount issued.
The payments have been made to 39,826 farmers across both tranche 1 and 2, and across ACRES General and Co-operation (CP) approaches.
The minister noted that over 73% of the total number of participants in ACRES will have received their 2024 advance payment before Christmas.
However, he assured those farmers who have not received their advance payments in recent weeks that the processing of payments is continuing, with pay runs to be made on a fortnightly basis from the end of January 2025.
“The participation of more than 54,000 farmers in a national agri-environmental scheme is a testament to the interest and commitment of Irish farmers in protecting and enhancing our environment in terms of biodiversity, water quality and climate measures,” Minister McConalogue said.
DAFM
The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) recently acknowledged the significant level of frustration among farmers over ACRES.
The Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) made the comments following a review meeting of the scheme organised by the department earlier this month.
IFA Rural Development Committee chair John Curran said that “the ball is now firmly in the department’s court” to deliver the real and substantive change that is needed in the agri-environment scheme.
“With ACRES we need to simplify the whole process; improve lines of communication and transparency for farmers, and ultimately deliver more money into the farmers pocket,” he said.