“It’s just one big mess,” were the words of an agricultural adviser from Mayo when asked how preparations were going for signing farmers up to the Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES).

“It basically feels like we’ve been set up to fail. The system is so hit and miss,” she told the Irish Farmers Journal on Tuesday.

The generic land management (GLAM) system was supposed to be available to advisers from early August so that they would be in a position to construct plans ahead of October, when the option to submit a plan went live.

However, advisers across the country claim that the system is constantly undergoing updates and, in some cases, displaying potentially misleading information.

“It’s telling me that one of my clients is in a designated area for geese and swans – I know in my heart and soul he is not,” she said.

A Cavan-Monaghan adviser said that the scheme “was only half launched”.

He said he expected the system to be up and running many weeks ago, adding that another issue is the fact that the final specifications haven’t even been circulated yet.

“We went to a meeting in Carrick-on-Shannon about it and we came home with more questions than answers. The Department didn’t even know themselves,” he said.

A Cork-based adviser said that the system is not user-friendly and clearly isn’t ready yet.

“At the end of the day, the farmer wants to know how much they can earn from it and, right now, I can’t tell farmers what they are going to get,” she said.