Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy McNamara for giving me the opportunity to update the House as regards the agri-climate rural environment scheme, in particular the scheduling of payments to farmers under the scheme. ACRES as we better know it is the agri-environment climate measure under Ireland's CAP strategic plan 2023-2027. In line with the commitment in the programme for Government, this flagship environmental scheme to which the Government has committed over €1.5 billion over its duration, was launched in 2022 and proved to be well received. This was evident from the exceptional demand for entry into the scheme, which demonstrates the interest of farmers to take on actions to address climate, biodiversity and environmental issues. While it had originally been intended that 30,000 farmers would be accepted into the scheme in tranche 1, as a Government, a decision was made that all valid applications submitted for tranche 1 would be accepted. That meant now that some 46,000 farmers were able to commence their participation in the scheme from 1 January 2023, which I am told is the largest intake into an agri-environment scheme in one tranche.

This acceptance of 46,000 applicants into the scheme has, as the Deputy is aware, created significant pressure on the Department of agriculture's ability to make advance payments to all participants by the year end as had been planned. The structure of the scheme, which has two approaches, general and co-operation, as well as new features such as results-based scoring, has also contributed to that pressure. No two contracts are the same as they can be comprised of either prescription or results-based actions or a combination of both, with a range of validations to be applied to ensure the correct amount payable is determined.

While officials have been working to expedite payments, it will not be possible with the unprecedented numbers and the complexity of the work required to make an advance payment to all ACRES participants by the end of this year. The schedule is that advance payments will commence on 18 December 2023, just next week, with payments for two thirds of all ACRES general participants in the final stage of being processed to go out in that first payment run. While payment for ACRES participants in the co-operation approach are being progressed, the position is that due to the additional complexity associated with that approach, including the fact that the bulk of payments are results based, payments for that cohort of participants will begin to issue in February 2024. Everything possible is being done to pay all ACRES participants as soon as possible. As the Deputy will appreciate, it is important for budgetary and audit purposes and for farmers themselves that the correct payment is made at the outset. I appreciate the call for a once-off, interim or 50% payment. The Department is of the view that it is not an alternative and that they want to get it right on the first occasion. They say it would undermine the integrity of the ACRES scheme as any such expenditure, they say, would not meet the standards required to access EU funding in accordance with the new performance reporting obligations under the CAP strategic plan.

The Government acknowledges the intensive and focused efforts of all involved in the implementation of the scheme, including farmers, advisers, ACRES co-operation project teams and the officials across government who are working together for the first year of this new scheme. The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine acknowledges that farmers were expecting payment before the end of this year. Every effort is being made to maximise the number of ACRES general applicants who will be paid in the period before Christmas, commencing as I mentioned, on 18 December. Efforts will continue to be made to ensure that payments for ACRES co-operation participants are processed and cleared for payment as quickly as possible in early 2024.

The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine has paid out €1.3 billion to farmers in CAP payments since October on schemes such as the basic income support for sustainability, BISS, complementary redistributive income support for sustainability, CRISS, the eco scheme and the areas of natural constraint scheme. There is a significant flow of payments going out. The structure of ACRES is at the forefront of agri-environmental schemes throughout Europe. It really is an ambitious undertaking to scale up the results-based approach that had been used before in certain European innovation partnership projects up to a national level. The roll-out of a scheme is always challenging at the outset in order to get it right. However, efforts are being made to ensure that payments will be made on a more timely basis in the future.

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