The flagship environmental scheme has been mired by criticism from participating farmers and farming organisations pertaining to a complex application system and delayed payments. The minister has acknowledged that some farmers may have received lower scores and, therefore, lower payments than they might have expected. “Without compromising on environmental ambition, I have asked my department to review the experience with the scheme to date, and to consider whether it can work better for these participants,” he said
“I want to assess the options and identify ways of advancing the scheme to improve, in particular, the experience for those in CP [the Co-operation Project] who have a low score. I have asked my department in that context to meet with farm organisations, farm advisory services and the CP teams to get their views, with a view to coming to a conclusion by the end of the year.”
Generally, Minister McConalogue said, ACRES is working well for most farmers, and more than €247m in payments have issued to participants since its inception. HE went on to say: “ACRES represents a very significant step forward in the level of ambition that we want to achieve from an agri-environmental scheme. The results-based approach is central to this. ACRES has leveraged the experience gained from European Innovation Partnership projects and the REAP Scheme, with the result that the area covered by results-based actions has increased from 80,000 hectares to 1.2 million hectares, and the number of farmers implementing such actions has increased from 3,200 to 35,000. As the scheme approaches the end of its second year, it is timely to review the experience to date, to identify what has worked well, and to consider areas where lessons can be learned for the future.”
Minister McConalogue stated that the scheme has high environmental ambition: “I secured record funding for it, and ensured that all 55,000 farmers who applied were accepted into the scheme. This is 10 per cent more than was committed to.
“I have recently committed to examining whether a way can be found to facilitate newly qualified farmers in 2025. When it became apparent to me that some participants would experience payment delays, I approved an unprecedented interim payment. This meant that all farmers in the scheme were paid either an advance or interim payment by the end of March.
“This review aims to assess how we can improve farmers’ experience of the scheme, ensure its environmental ambition is fully realised, and make sure that ACRES is working effectively for everyone.”