Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Senator Pippa Hackett):

ACRES is the central agri-environment climate measure in Ireland's Common Agricultural Policy Strategic Plan 2023-2027. It is a flagship agri-environmental scheme and it is intended that it will pay farmers €1.5 billion over the lifetime of the scheme. ACRES will play a huge role in terms of driving environmental improvements. It is the largest amount ever committed to an agri-environment scheme. I am delighted to see that so many farmers applied for ACRES, indicating their willingness to farm for the benefit of the environment and society. The submission of more than 46,000 applications shows the level of interest in participating in agri-environment schemes. The scheme forms part of Ireland's CAP strategic plan, which is the successor to the outgoing green, low-carbon agri-environment scheme, GLAS.

On 1 March, the Minister, Deputy McConalogue, confirmed that all applicants who had submitted valid applications will be accepted to ACRES. Farmers should start to receive their approval letters this week. For those participants in the co-operation, CP, stream, CP teams will begin applying the appropriate scorecards to participants' holdings. The CP teams will use their knowledge of the land in the CP zones to assign a scorecard based on the habitat types found on farmers' lands. Ten scorecards have been developed by the Department and the CP teams. The majority of these, such as rough grazing, peatland, or grassland will have a broad application across the CP zones. Other scorecards are more specific, for example, the chough or Burren winterage scorecards. There is no scorecard specific to the hen harrier. The CP teams will use their expertise to apply the most appropriate scorecard to the habitat found. The key is to manage the land to improve the score achieved, which will have the benefit of enhancing the habitat for a range of species, and for the benefit of the wider environment. CP teams will work with farmers to help them to improve their land's score. This can be done by the careful application of non-productive investments, NPIs, and landscape actions, LAs. My Department is developing a list of NPIs and LAs that farmers can decide to carry out on their lands, mindful of the right action in the right place. Participants will work with CP teams and their advisers to choose the best action to improve their land and to address any issues that may be found.

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