The Irish Natura and Hill Farmers Association (INHFA) has called on the government to address issues in the Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES) around farmers who haven’t received their first payments.

The association held meetings with Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue in Kerry and Donegal to find workable solutions to ongoing issues in the scheme.

The INHFA said that 4,000 farmers are currently awaiting ACRES balancing payments.

The association’s national chair Pheilim Molloy said that these payments need to be made urgently, as well as addressing the ongoing issues farmers are experiencing, including in ACRES co-operation project (CP) areas.

He said the issues include: “[A] lack of information on commonage scorecards which has for many farmers led to low scores and payment rates that has seen demands from the Department for the repayment of monies.”

Farmers have “been denied the opportunity to address issues that could improve their score and the support through specific actions because the Department have failed to facilitate actions under the non-productive investments (NPIs) and landscape actions (LAs)”.

Review

Last week, Minister McConalogue announced that an ACRES review will take place over the coming months to address ongoing issues.

The INHFA has produced a document of proposals to resolve some of the issues while ensuring that all farmers currently waiting on payments are paid.

The association proposes to pay all farmers on a score of eight, while also providing the time to address more fundamental issues that have “dogged” the scheme.

“Any review must involve active engagement with the key stakeholders including farming organisations such as the INHFA,” Molloy added.