The Department of Agriculture has been requested by Teagasc to consider extending the deadline for advisers to submit Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES) scorecards.
Last week, Teagasc formally requested that the Department consider extending the deadline to the end of September.
The current deadline is 31 August 2023.
As of 13 July, just one in seven of the 180,000 scorecards issued by the Department had been submitted.
There are 625 approved advisers for ACRES and in the region of 300 had submitted scorecards as of mid-July.
As reported by the Irish Farmers Journal, just over 500 of the approved advisers have less than 200 applications to handle, while 50 advisers have more than 200 applications and 274 advisers have less than 50 applications.
IFA reaction
Irish Farmers' Association (IFA) rural development chair Michael Biggins rejected suggestions that penalties would be imposed on farmers as a result of planners not submitting their ACRES scorecards on time.
“We understand the huge pressure some advisers are facing because of the interest in ACRES, but it is unacceptable that farmers would be penalised if planners don’t have the capacity to score the farmland.
“Farmers are paying planners to score their land as part of the scheme. If it is not delivered within the Department timeframe, farmers should not take the hit,” he said.
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