The increase in funding to €280m will be used to meet core payments along with additional funding requirements such as landscape actions and non-productive investments.
Some farmers initially thought that an additional €20m in funding may signal a reopening of the scheme to new applicants but this is not the case.
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An additional €20m in funding has been allocated to the Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme under Budget 2026.
This brings total funding committed for the 2026 scheme year to €280m.
The additional funding is required to meet existing commitments in terms of core payments to approximately 53,000 farmers and accounts for targeted payments through farmers drawing down funding for non-productive investments (NPIs) and landscape actions (LAs).
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Some farmers initially thought that an additional €20m in funding may signal a reopening of the scheme to new applicants, but this is not the case.
The increase in funding is built into the programme for Government with €723m of the €1.5bn in carbon tax funding collected by 2030 used in the period of the CAP Strategic Plan 2023-2027.
Participants
The latest payment update published by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine shows €227.8m paid under the 2024 advance payment to 98.8% of participants while €39.3m has been paid under the 2024 scheme year balancing payments to 97.4% of participants.
When combined, it means that in the region of €268m is required to meet core payments leaving in the region of €12m for NPIs and LAs. Additional funds would be required if there is a strong take-up of these optional measures but reports indicate that while there was an initial high submission of applications there has been a low volume of investments completed.
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Title: €20m for ACRES to meet continued commitments
The increase in funding to €280m will be used to meet core payments along with additional funding requirements such as landscape actions and non-productive investments.
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An additional €20m in funding has been allocated to the Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme under Budget 2026.
This brings total funding committed for the 2026 scheme year to €280m.
The additional funding is required to meet existing commitments in terms of core payments to approximately 53,000 farmers and accounts for targeted payments through farmers drawing down funding for non-productive investments (NPIs) and landscape actions (LAs).
Some farmers initially thought that an additional €20m in funding may signal a reopening of the scheme to new applicants, but this is not the case.
The increase in funding is built into the programme for Government with €723m of the €1.5bn in carbon tax funding collected by 2030 used in the period of the CAP Strategic Plan 2023-2027.
Participants
The latest payment update published by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine shows €227.8m paid under the 2024 advance payment to 98.8% of participants while €39.3m has been paid under the 2024 scheme year balancing payments to 97.4% of participants.
When combined, it means that in the region of €268m is required to meet core payments leaving in the region of €12m for NPIs and LAs. Additional funds would be required if there is a strong take-up of these optional measures but reports indicate that while there was an initial high submission of applications there has been a low volume of investments completed.
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