ACRES Answers Needed at Charter Meeting

IFA Connacht Regional Chair Brendan Golden has called on DAFM officials to come to the Farmers Charter of Rights meeting on Friday next with concrete timelines and answers around the beleaguered ACRES scheme.

“The time for talk is over. Farmers have done the work required of them.  Now they expect what’s owed to them, or another interim ACRES payment, similar to the one made last Spring,” Brendan Golden said.

IFA Rural Development Chair John Curran said financial pressure is building up on many farms around the country.

“For the Minister to come out in recent days and say it will be the end of June before everyone is sorted is nothing short of an insult, especially those waiting on their full 2023 payments.”

‘It’s a complete nonsense at this stage. Farmers deserve better, and certainly they shouldn’t be left in complete limbo, unable to get any confirmation or clarification from DAFM on what’s holding up their individual payments, or when it’s expected to land into their accounts. At a minimum, that’s what we will be looking for from the DAFM on Friday. The interim payment was a necessary intervention this time last year. History has repeated itself and it’s needed again as a matter of priority,” he said.