Farmer fury over delayed ACRES money

Farmers waiting for money they are owed under the Agri Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES) are furious over the ongoing delays to payments under the scheme.

As of this week, some 9,316 farmers have yet to be paid for actions carried out under the scheme. Seán Quinn from Co Cavan has said that the lack of payment for work and measures undertaken has created severe financial constraints on his farm business.

“As always farmers are held to cripplingly high standards with fear of inspections, fines and imposition always a prospect. On the other hand, the Department can be shoddy, amateurish and withhold payments and there is no accountability.”

Many farmers have actions completed and have not been paid for those actions.

NPIs

Noel Joyce from Co Galway is one such farmer who has carried out a non-productive investment (NPI) but has not been paid.

“I am approved for NPI fencing and have the work completed. I rang the Department and asked how I could claim my payment.

“The answer I got was that there is no system set up to pay me and they couldn’t give me a date when this would even be done.

“The woman on the phone said it might be next year,” Joyce said.

Shane McAuliffe from Co Kerry said that as a farmer and also as a part-time adviser, he has seen the impact the ACRES delays are having on the ground.

“Some of these new hedgerows approved are hundreds of metres long, with initial planting costs going into the thousands.

“We are now into the final week of bare root planting, where the planting deadline is the 31 March. Am I expecting my farmer clients to receive funds, order from a nursery and get it planted in the next few days?

“I think any reader will know this answer,” McAuliffe said.

Joseph Nolan from Co Carlow has said that farmers should be given the opportunity to walk away from this scheme without penalty or having to pay back any money.

Reacting to comments made by the Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon in the Seanad, IFA president Francie Gorman said the Minister is out of touch and disconnected from the stress and financial hardship endured by farm families because of his Department’s failure to deliver ACRES payments as contracted.

“How can the Minister say ‘real progress’ is being made when there are still thousands awaiting ACRES payments.

“It’s an insult to these farm families to call that progress,” he said.

Rural development chair of the Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers Association (ICSA) Edmond Phelan argued that the excuse given by the department is that the payment delays are an IT issue.

However, this excuse, he said, is wearing thin.

“We have deadlines when we apply for schemes. We have deadlines to complete certain measures.

“The Department on the other hand has no such deadlines,” he said.

A father and son farming in partnership in Co Tipperary are waiting on their entire ACRES payment after it was all clawed back by the Department of Agriculture.

In February 2024, the duo received an ACRES interim payment of €8,000, which they realised immediately was an overpayment to them by the Department. They were expecting an ACRES payment of just over €4,000 for their chosen measures: approximately €2,700 for planting of catch crops; around €1,100 for hedgerow planting and €125 for an archaeological feature.

The farmers gave the go-ahead for the Department to recoup the overpayment, which they believed to be just under €4,000, from their other farm payments. Instead, the entire €8,000 ACRES interim payment was taken back by the Department, leaving the farmers with no ACRES money at all.

The full €8,000 was recouped by the Department via five different amounts from their farm payments: ACRES general (€1,235), liming (€96), ANC (€1,500), eco schemes (€4,300) and direct payments (€800). The farmers’ agricultural adviser has sent multiple emails to the Department but have not had any reply. “We would have to respond within 10 days if the Department wrote to us but they don’t seem to have to write back to us at all,” one of the frustrated farmers said.