The Irish Farmers Association (IFA) has called on the Department to devote whatever resources are necessary to sort out Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES) payments once and for all.

IFA national rural development chair John Curran said that not all farmers have received advance payments for year two of the scheme, which started to issue last week.

"We thought the stumbling blocks of 2023 were overcome and sorted out once and for all, but it appears to have been a false dawn for many,” Curran said.

“We are hearing from various quarters in recent days, including from ACRES CP teams, that many farmers awaiting balancing payments, including those involving the rare breed action, won’t have their cases processed or paid until early 2025 at the earliest,” he said.

Elevated costs

“Close on 200 farmers have received no payment at all - nearly three years into a five-year scheme and at a time of elevated costs of production and farm margins on the floor.

“The Department need[s] to sort this out. It’s not acceptable or good enough to simply keep kicking the can down the road and expect impacted farmers to just sit back and accept it.

"No other sector of society would put up with it. And farmers won’t either,” the IFA national rural development chair said.

“The fundamental issue with ACRES is that it's overly complex and difficult to administer, with the financial return to farmers limited at best.

"Even with less than half the level initially anticipated entering the scheme this year, the Department still [isn't] able to issue payments to all on time. If something is broken, fix it.

'Deserve better'

“There’s no point carrying on regardless and hoping it will sort itself out, all the time leaving farmers in the lurch, unsure where they stand, with no or delayed payments received,” he said.

“Farmers deserve better. They signed up to ACRES in good faith. They have incurred costs and undertaken investment and want to do more, but for delayed non-productive investment approvals, so the Department need[s] to honour [its] side of the contract and ensure payments are issued on time and farmers know exactly where they stand,” he added.

“Transparency and direct engagement with impacted farmers to date has been less than desirable to say the least.

"Too many farmers are operating in an information vacuum, unable to get clarity from anyone on what exactly is happening and going off hearsay as to why there’s a hold-up or when they can expect their payments to land. That’s just not good enough,” John Curran said.

“The recent Department-announced review is a positive first step. Initially for mid-November and now sometime in early December, it can’t however be another talking shop or box-ticking exercise that simply seeks to hear and apply lessons for an agri-environmental scheme in CAP post-2027.

“ACRES changes are needed in 2025, not 2028. Farmers have lost faith and are already walking with their feet.

"[The] IFA [has] made a detailed submission to DAFM around an improved agri-environmental scheme that delivers up to €15,000 for farmers, with central themes such as improved communications, transparency, scoring, NPIs, etc, that need serious consideration,” he concluded.