Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Moynihan for raising this. I am aware there has been significant industry interest in the Deputy's constituency in the agri-climate rural environment scheme, ACRES, and that the Deputy is keen to ensure that continues to be facilitated.

As the Deputy will be aware, ACRES is the central agri-environmental measure in Ireland's Common Agricultural Policy, CAP, strategic plan.  We have allocated €1.5 billion to it over the scheme lifetime. This is the largest amount ever committed to an agri-environment scheme. Through that, it will play a huge role in driving environmental improvements and, importantly, providing significant and crucial income support to farm families as well.

Intake into the scheme is phased in tranches to spread the workload on advisers and to enable them to allocate sufficient time for the preparation of applications, the completion of the farm sustainability plan and selection of appropriate actions.

Tranche 1 of ACRES opened for applications on 17 October 2022 and remained open until 7 December 2022 with 46,000 applications received. We worked hard to ensure that 46,000 applicants were accepted on to the scheme and able to participate fully in ACRES this year.

Following budget 2024, I have increased the allocation for ACRES by €40 million, bringing the total 2024 scheme allocation to €200 million, a substantial increase on this year's budget. The provision of additional funding will allow us to deliver on the Government’s commitment to have 50,000 farmers participating in ACRES. An additional 4,000 farmers will be accepted into the second tranche of the scheme.

The same three-step process that applied to the first tranche will also apply to tranche 2. This includes the submission of an expression of interest by farm advisers on behalf of their clients and the preparation and submission of a farm sustainability plan. The final step is the submission of the ACRES applications.

I am pleased to confirm that the expression of interest stage of ACRES tranche 2 is now open and that the Department's online portal for the submission of farm sustainability plans will open shortly.  In the event of a higher number of applications being received, a ranking and selection process will be applied based on the extent of the environmental benefit to be delivered. I would encourage all interested farmers to get in contact with an approved ACRES adviser as soon as possible so that they can commence some of the associated preparatory work at the earliest opportunity.

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