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Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue has said that 95% of farmers are expected to be paid their Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES) balancing payments by the end of September.
The minister acknowledged the delays that have been experienced in the processing of payments for farmers who joined tranche one of the scheme, particularly the 8,636 farmers who are awaiting their balancing payment.
“This scheme, with its scale, ambition and complexity, has presented challenges in terms of meeting the payment timelines envisaged at the time of its launch.
“By the middle of March this year, virtually all ACRES participants (44,780) had received either an 85% advance payment, or a flat rate interim payment of either €4,000 or €5,000.
“Some 19,719 of these had received their advance payment between November and February, with the remainder (25,061) receiving interim payments by mid-March. These interim payments represented the majority of, or in some cases exceeded, the total ACRES payments due for the year,” he said on Thursday evening.
He said that 82% of farmers in the scheme, 36,410, have also received their final balancing payment, adjusted, where appropriate, to account for the interim payment.
“This brings payments to date in respect of the first year of the scheme to €241m,” he said.
Calculations
The Department is currently finalising the calculations for the 8,646 participants who have received an advance or interim payment, but have not yet received the final balancing payment for year one of the scheme, he said.
The Department is determined to ensure that the challenges experienced with administering year one of the scheme are resolved for year two
“I have been working closely with the ACRES team to ensure that a plan is in place to ensure that these are finalised as soon as possible. I expect payments to be completed in respect of 95% of all ACRES participants by the end of September.
“Of the 36,410 farmers who have received their full payment to date, the average total payment for ACRES general participants has been €5,200 and the average total core payment for those in the co-operation stream has been €5,100, which is broadly in line with projections at the outset of the scheme,” he said.
Non-productive investments
The minister said that for farmers participating in the co-operation stream, there remains “an additional €17,500 maximum available for draw down from non-productive investments (NPIs), landscape actions (LAs) and the landscape bonus.
“Approvals for the NPI applications already received will issue before the end of 2024, with a new round of NPI applications opening on 17 September,” he said.
He said everyone in the Department is “determined to ensure that the challenges experienced with administering year one of the scheme are resolved for year two”.
Work is progressing to ensure the effective delivery of 2024 advance payments for both tranche one and two ACRES participants, he said, adding that these payments will commence by the end of November 2024.
“ACRES has the highest level of funding available of any environmental scheme ever run by the Department. I ensured that all applicants were accepted into both tranches, which has resulted in almost 55,000 farmers now participating in the scheme.”
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