Habitat scores must be provided to Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES) farmers as a matter of urgency, the Irish Natura and Hill Farmers Association (INHFA) has said.

It has called for the scores to be issued, particularly where the Department of Agriculture is seeking to recover funds already paid to those in the scheme.

The INHFA has described many repayment requests by the department as “excessive”.

However, the farm body pointed out that farmers will need their habitat scores in order to appeal the Department’s repayment demands.

“As there are many farmers with an overpayment demand who believe these repayment requests could be excessive, there needs to be an opportunity for the farmer to challenge these demands through an appeals system,” said INHFA president Vincent Roddy.

“As part of this appeals system, these farmers will need their habitat scores, which will help inform future actions,” he added.

The INHFA leader also called for a streamlined and fast appeals mechanism to be put in place where repayment requests from the Department can be adjudicated on in a timely and efficient manner.

Interim payments of €5,000 were paid to all ACRES members earlier this year, with the Department indicating that balancing payments would be paid once estimates of what individual farmers were likely to receive under ACRES became apparent.

These full payments are influenced by the habitat scores allocated to lands included in ACRES.

The issuing of these habitat scores to farmers has been severely delayed, adding to farmer frustration with the environmental scheme.

Roddy said his organisation had been contacted by a number of farmers who have indicated that they intend to leave ACRES because of the level of repayments requests sought by the Department.

Many of those planning on leaving ACRES have received high repayment demands – often in excess of €3,000, the INHFA leader said.

Roddy also called for ACRES payments to be prioritised by the Department over the next month. He said extra staff should be drafted into the area to help if needed.