ACRES Uncertainty and Delays Still Creating Havoc – IFA  

IFA National Hill Farming chair Cáillin Conneely said the vacuum of information surrounding ACRES, and thousands of farmers still awaiting balancing payments, is simply unacceptable.

“No other sector of society would put up with it. Farmers need their ACRES payments today, not whenever it suits the Department. Cashflow is becoming more and more of an issue on farms,” Cáillin Conneely said.

“The Department needs to devote whatever resources are needed to quickly sort out this mess. They need to engage with farmers so they know where they stand, and they must provide assurances that these ongoing delays will not have any consequences for advance 2024 Tranche 1 or Tranche 2 ACRES payments,” he said.

“Farmers entered the scheme in good faith; invested in planners and environmental actions; but many find themselves now not knowing where they stand. They don’t know if they will get paid, or even if they have to pay back money, and that’s without even mentioning the delayed approvals of Non-Productive Investment applications which closed last December,” he added.

“The scoring seems to be extremely harsh on many commonages too, compounded by 100m exclusions around turbary activity. Given the calamity that is ACRES thus far, maximum flexibility should apply.”

“The exclusion zone should be considerably reduced, and the Department needs to get their ship in order and deliver the ACRES scheme that was sold to farmers,” the IFA National Hill Farming Chair said.

“We have called for a meeting of the Charter Monitoring Committee to get greater clarity and a speedy resolution on outstanding issues, but we are still waiting for a reply from the Department,” Cáillin Conneely said.