Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. ACRES is part of the agri-environment climate measure in Ireland’s CAP strategic plan for 2023 to 2027. It is a voluntary scheme whereby farmers, when approved, will undertake certain actions on their land for at least five years. It closed last night and I want to recognise the massive work that has gone into the application process by the farmers and their advisers who have worked night and day over the recent period to get their farms walked and their applications in. I also want to recognise the massive work that is going on in my Department and the team there building this scheme, administering the applications process, and the massive job of work that is ahead of them to step that out. They have done tremendous work. It is a good scheme, which has been popular and well received by farmers. Once again it reflects the appetite of farmers to be involved in such a scheme. I recognise that and thank everybody for getting us to this stage.

There are two approaches available to farmers under ACRES, namely the general approach and the common approach. The Government has committed €1.5 billion to ACRES. It opened for applications on 17 October and I extended the closing date by two weeks until last night to give as many farmers as possible the opportunity to apply to participate next year. As the Deputy will be aware, we have allocated funding to provide for 30,000 farmers in the budget for next year so we will see what the numbers are after the closure of applications.

On the Deputy's point regarding a gap year, that is something I am conscious of and have discussed with farmers as well. It is also something I am reflecting on with our team as to how we may be able to accommodate that because for those who were previously involved in the green low carbon agri-environment scheme, GLAS but who may not be involved in ACRES, that is a real challenge. It is a significant source of income as well as the contribution it facilitates farmers to make to working on environmental goods. It is something I am conscious of and will reflect on further.

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