The Irish Natura and Hill Farmers Association (INHFA) has warned how the shambolic roll-out of the Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES) will impact uptake of future agri-environment schemes.

INHFA vice-president John Joe Fitzgerald said that the "painfully slow roll-out" of payments and associated support measures will not be forgotten by farmers when it comes to agri-environmental schemes in future CAP programmes.

"The entire process, from inception through to where we currently are with thousands of farmers still awaiting payments and clarity on their habitat scorecards, has been an unmitigated disaster.

"We must remember that farmers were sold a scheme that would support them in delivering on the Government's ambition to address issues around climate change and biodiversity loss," he said.

'Nightmare'

However, for many farmers, this promise turned into a nightmare, as the Department has continued to miss payment deadlines, leaving many in a precarious financial position, Fitzgerald added.

"Every day, farmers and their spouses [are] ringing our office crying down the phone because the Department has yet to pay them and can’t even give an exact date for when they will be paid.

"For many of these farmers, they have loans to pay, which they are not able to do. This in turn is impacting on their credit rating and the potential to secure future loans," Fitzgerald said.

Fitzgerald stressed that it is vital that Department staff recognise the impact this is having and that while they talk in terms of the number of farmers paid and still awaiting payment, behind those numbers are real people that are hurting, people that they have failed, he said.

Support measures

Beyond the hold-up in payments, he said that there has also been major issues in the roll-out of critical support measures through the non-productive investments (NPIs) and landscape actions (LAs).

These measures were, he stated “designed to support farmers on improving the habitat and the overall habitat scores.

"Unfortunately, with many requests under the NPIs turned down and commonage farmers still awaiting the roll-out of the LAs, we have to question if the Department has the ability to deliver on any aspect of the ACRES CP programme.”

As we move into the second half of the ACRES timeline, it is, Fitzgerald stressed, “vital that the Minister gets on top of this, which can be done through an interim payment for all farmers still awaiting 2023 or the first instalment of their 2024 payment".

"On the NPIs, the Department needs to step back from this process and let the CP teams assess and sanction these actions, while we need an immediate roll-out of the LAs.”

In concluding, the INHFA vice-president warned of the enormous damage done to farmer trust, which will definitely impact on future agri-environment schemes, but stressed that, in the short term, many issues currently facing ACRES need to be addressed.