The new Agri-Environment Climate Measure (AECM), which is set to be rolled out in the coming weeks, is “far from” a new Rural Environment Protection Scheme (REPS), according to Irish Farmers' Association (IFA) president Tim Cullinan.

Cullinan accused the Government and Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue of “trying to spin this as a REPS-type scheme since it first appeared in the programme for Government”.

“However, it has little or nothing in common with the original REPS,” he said.

More compliance, less income

Cullinan noted that “since the original REPS”, farmers have had the Agri-Environment Options Scheme (AEOS) and the Green Low-Carbon Agri-Environment Scheme (GLAS).

On these, he said: “Each has seen more compliance and less income for farmers.

“This new scheme is extremely complicated. It will exclude many farmers and huge amounts of funding will leak to people running the co-operation model.”

Scheme plan

The new AECM proposes to have up to 50,000 farmers participating and it’s planned to open the scheme over at least two tranches.

Tranche one is scheduled to open at the end of this year, with scheme participation commencing in January 2023.

Tranche two is to open for applications during the fourth quarter of 2023, with scheme participation commencing in January 2024.

IFA rural development chair Michael Biggins said all farmers who apply for the new AECM in 2023 “must be paid in the same year”.

“There is a real concern about income if there is a lag between GLAS and ACEM, which will be caused by the tranche approach. Not accepting all participants into the scheme in 2023 is simply unacceptable.

“GLAS/AECM payments are a critically important part of farmers’ incomes. It is essential that all applicants under all tranches receive a payment in 2023 and the scheme cannot be limited to 50,000 participants,” said Biggins.

No farmer without payment

The IFA rural development chair called on Minister McConalogue to “ensure no farmer is without an environment scheme payment for 2023”.

“This can be done by either rolling over 12,000 GLAS III participants for 2023 or alternatively by paying an upfront payment in 2023 for tranche two participants similar to the way REPS payments were in the past.

“If the scheme is to live up to expectations, payment rates for prescription-based measures must be improved upon when compared to the GLAS payment rate and the payment rate of €10,500 per farmer for the co-operative areas must also be available to farmers in the scheme general option,” he said.

‘Realistic and suitable’

On the point of the co-operative model and the general option including results-based measures, Biggins said these measures must be realistic and suitable for all sectors.

“Consultation with farmers on the design of the scheme has been minimal, but from what we have seen it will cause huge frustration amongst farmers. For a scheme which is due to open this year, there are simply not enough details available to help farmers prepare,” he said.