The thousands of farmers still awaiting ACRES balancing payments, is simply unacceptable, IFA national hill farming chair Cáillin Conneely said.No other sector of society would put up with it, he argued, adding that farmers need their ACRES payments today, not whenever it suits the Department [of Agriculture].
The thousands of farmers still awaiting ACRES balancing payments, is simply unacceptable, IFA national hill farming chair Cáillin Conneely said.
No other sector of society would put up with it, he argued, adding that farmers need their ACRES payments today, not whenever it suits the Department [of Agriculture].
"Cashflow is becoming more and more of an issue on farms. 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, he added, 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 argued.
Scoring
The scoring seems to be extremely harsh on many commonages too, Conneely said, 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," Conneely said.
The IFA has called for a meeting of the charter monitoring committee to get greater clarity and a speedy resolution on outstanding issues.
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