Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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I have been raising the issue of the impact of domestic turf cutting on agri-climate rural environment scheme, ACRES, eligibility and scoring for farmers with commonage land for weeks. I have spoken to the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy McConalogue, about it, as well as writing to him. The Minister of State will know there has been significant uptake of ACRES among farmers in County Mayo and along the western seaboard and the amount of money received by farmers will largely be determined by the scoring of their fields for biodiversity. Many farmers in the west will be relying on commonage and mountain lands to generate these scores. Parcels are marked out of ten, with ten being the highest score. The issue is the scoring of mountain land, where active turf cutting means all farmers on that commonage will lose marks, even if the turf cutter with the turbary rights is not one of those farmers. The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine is advising that active turf cutting on parcels of land will lead to a reduction of 30% in the scoring. That means these parcels will now be marked out of seven. A score of four or more has to be achieved in order to get any payment.

Most commonage lands will have active turf cutting taking place and this 30% reduction for shareholders will see a drastic reduction in payments for individual farmers. People are waiting to cut their turf, but they do not want to jeopardise their neighbours' payments and they are unsure as to who this would affect those payments. They may decide not to cut, but find that others will do so, lending to all payments being reduced. I ask that a sensible approach be used here. Previous schemes, such as the wild Atlantic nature scheme, mapped the area of the mountain being cut and excluded that from the scoring, while the recent of the mountain parcel was scored normally. Farmers are responsible custodians of their lands and are making considerable efforts to embrace biodiversity and tackle climate change. They need clarity and certainty as to the income they will receive and they are more than willing to play their part.

This is a real issue. I am giving the Minister of State a solution to it. The issue can be cleared up. These communities are experiencing significant anxiety. We do not want to have a situation where neighbours are falling out with one another over whether they can cut turf on their bogs. There is no impediment to them cutting, but they do not want to take away 30% of their neighbours' payments either. These farmers are very much dependent on these payments. I am concerned about ACRES - we may talk about it at another stage - with regard to farmers' expectations of what they will get out of the scheme.

9 o’clock

When I see how things are transpiring at present, I think there will be farm families who will be hugely disappointed come September and October when they do not get the payments they were promised or they envisaged they might get under this scheme. That is a wider issue. I ask the Minister of State to look at it as well because farm families are dependent on these payments, this year above any other year, with the input costs and with the struggles of the cost of living around this as well.

The turf-cutting one is immediate. That needs to be solved now.

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

I thank Deputy Conway-Walsh for this opportunity to discuss the new agri-climate rural environment scheme, ACRES. ACRES is our new, hugely popular and ambitious agri-environment climate measure under Ireland's CAP Strategic Plan 2023-2027. The Government has committed €1.5 billion to the scheme over its duration, which is the largest amount ever committed to an agri-environment scheme. The commitment of such a large amount of money highlights the importance of the scheme to the delivery of long-term environmental improvement through the participation by a significant number of farmers on the most appropriate land, with each making a strong improvement on his or her farm. ACRES has truly captured the imagination of farm families across the country with thousands upon thousands of farmers applying to join this exciting scheme. My colleague, the Minister, Deputy McConalogue, has confirmed that 46,000 farmers who applied for ACRES are being accepted into the scheme.

There are two approaches with ACRES. ACRES co-operation project, CP, applies in eight mapped zones that are areas of high nature value, hold significant carbon stores and are home to some of the most pristine waters in the country. In these CP areas, farmers work collectively and collaboratively to make major climate and biodiversity improvements. ACRES general is for all other farmers not falling within CP zones. Participants in ACRES commit under their ACRES contract to undertake certain actions for a period of five years. There are attractive rates of payment available under both approaches.

We are hugely supportive of farmers in the commonage areas. Commonage falls within both approaches and is a mandatory action for all ACRES participants with commonage land. Applicants with commonage received priority entry into ACRES general under tier 1 to incentivise farmers to help ensure habitats on such lands are maintained or restored to good condition through appropriate management practices. There is a set payment per hectare for commonages of 10 ha or less, with a requirement for the submission for a commonage farm plan prepared by certain advisers. As there is a results-based payment associated with commonages of greater than 10 ha, the application includes a commitment to have the commonage scored by an approved commonage assessor by a certain deadline. A payment will then be paid to that shareholder based on the score awarded. This assessment can be carried out without the consent or agreement of all shareholders where at least one shareholder is an ACRES participant.

Let me say clearly and for the absolute avoidance of any doubt that ACRES does not prohibit any activity on commonages. The approach in ACRES for commonage is for results-based payments so the payment rate relates to the quality of habitat using a range of criteria assessing the ecological and hydrological integrity of the commonage and various damaging activities. This scoring work on commonages will be undertaken at no cost to the farmer. Once completed, this work will also be a useful management tool to assist farmers to improve the management of commonages by helping to identify potential foraging capacity and appropriate stocking levels which optimise the achievement of a range of environmental services in parallel with agricultural activity. Additionally, the scoring will provide a benchmark by which farmers, with the support of their advisers and ACRES co-operation teams, can monitor progress and target specific areas for action to improve scoring and associated payment. This, ultimately, will be the way in which commonage farmers can enhance their contribution to national environmental outcomes.

While fully appreciating the rights of farmers to cut turf, the Department and co-operation teams are conscious that active turf-cutting could have a disproportionate impact on scores on commonage, and to ensure ACRES participants on commonage lands are rewarded for their environmental ambition, we are now proposing that non-turbary and turbary areas are scored independently of each other.

Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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I appreciate that. Obviously, it is results based. However, when the Minister of State says that everyone will be eligible, the fact is that if the parcels were marked out of seven and they cannot achieve a score of four or more, they would be eligible but they would not get any payment.

I want to let the Minister of State expand on what she says "we are now proposing that non-turbary and turbary areas are scored independently of each other". Does that mean it will be similar to the other scheme, the wild Atlantic nature scheme, that has mapped the area of the mountain being cut and excluded that from the scoring while the rest of the mountain parcel is scored normally? The Minister of State might clarify if that is exactly what this means. Is it following the model of the Atlantic nature scheme? If it is, it will work.

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

I thank the Deputy. To finish where I ran out of time, the idea is to separate out those areas. Where turf-cutting is allowed, that will be taken off the overall score. The farmer should not be disadvantaged by cutting, but if the farmer is cutting on a non-turbary area, he or she will be disadvantaged by that, but that is because he or she is damaging the habitat and does not have the permission to do that. That is a welcome development. It also means turbary rights on commonages are unaffected if the shareholder wishes to proceed with that activity and he or she will not be penalised for that. In doing so, any scoring related to active turbary will be confined to those subunits of active turbary, thereby allowing the vast majority of commonage land to be assessed independently of turbary, where such rights exist. ACRES farmers will be paid in full for their combined score on non-turbary and turbary areas, subject to scheme ceilings. The ultimate aim of all the ACRES schemes is to deliver an environmental return to the land for the wider landscape and, it is hoped, to the farmer as well.

It is important to say ACRES is not an income support scheme in the same way basic income support for sustainability, BISS, and direct payments would be, but we want to see farmers rewarded for good work. That is why we are taking the results-based approach. We have seen it work well in terms of European Innovation Partnership, EIP, projects, such as the hen harrier project. This is what has spawned these new co-operation project levels. I am familiar with many of the areas on the western seaboard as well and I look forward to the farmers engaging and us delivering on our environment ambitions through this scheme.