Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail)
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710. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if it is possible for additional measures to be provided through ACRES for farmers on free-draining land who are limited by the current options provided; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [60181/22]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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The Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES) is the agri-environment climate measure under Ireland’s CAP Strategic Plan 2023 – 2027.  

There are two approaches available to farmers under ACRES, namely the ACRES General approach or the ACRES Co-operation approach depending on the location of their holding, with the eligibility for each outlined in the Scheme Terms and Conditions available on the Department’s website at gov.ie - Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES) (www.gov.ie). 

Land included in the ACRES Co-operation approach falls within eight identified zones, which comprise of high nature value farmlands.

The approaches, and the options available under each, have been designed to address a range of objectives and it is considered that there is a wide range of actions from which a farmer may choose.

The ACRES Co-operation is mainly a result-based programme, so forage parcels located in the Co-operation Project (CP) zone can be scored using habitat scorecards and a payment rate will apply depending on the score.

Once the land has been scored there will be an opportunity to select appropriate actions. There is a maximum result-based core payment of €7,000 each year, with up to €3,500 also available each year by the selection of voluntary supporting actions (non-productive investments or landscape actions) within the respective co-operation area.

Where the participant does not reach the maximum core payment of €7,000 they can make up the shortfall by applying for Non-Productive Investments (NPI) and/or Landscape Actions.  

There will be a list of approximately 50 Non-Productive Investments that will be available to participants. Farmers in the CP zone have the flexibility to select NPIs and/or landscape actions each year.

The ACRES General approach is similar to the Green Low Carbon Agri-Environment Scheme (GLAS) which was available under the Rural Development Programme 2014-2020, in that there is a list of actions the farmer can select with their advisor, the satisfactory completion of which makes him/her eligible for payment under the ACRES General approach.

The maximum annual payment under the ACRES General approach is €7,311. A list of the specifications for all of the ACRES General actions may be viewed on my Department’s website at the above address.  While it is not possible at this stage to add more actions to that list, there are actions currently available within this approach that would suit free draining land for both tillage and grassland parcels. 

The application process involves the submission of a Farm Sustainability Plan which will guide the ACRES advisor to identify the most appropriate action for the parcel of land and to advise the farmer accordingly.

Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail)
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711. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the total number of farmers paid under the basic payment scheme since the formation of the current Government; the total amount of payments in Euro paid out under this scheme by county in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [60256/22]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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Applications under the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) are completed online via agfood.ie. The online application facility takes in approx. 130,000 applications annually. Eligible applications are processed promptly for payment.  The application facility opens mid-February annually and closes mid-May.

BPS payments begin each year with an advance payment mid-October and a balancing payment the first week in December. The efficient issuing of Scheme payments to farmers continues to be a key priority for my Department. The information requested is outlined in the tables below.

Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail)
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712. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the total number of farmers paid under the areas of natural constraint; the total amount of payments in Euro paid out under this scheme since the formation of the current Government by county in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [60257/22]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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Please see information requested by the Deputy in the tables below for the ANC scheme years 2020, 2021 and 2022, which covers the period since the formation of the current government.  Scheme year payments provided are payments to date for each year. 

Note that balancing payments for 2022 commenced on 5th December 2022 and payments will continue to be made into 2023 because some farmers will not have met their minimum stocking requirements until 31st December 2022. 

Areas of Natural Constraints scheme year 2020 – payments commenced September 2020

Areas of Natural Constraints scheme year 2021 – payments commenced September 2021

Areas of Natural Constraints scheme year 2022 – payments commenced September 2022

Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail)
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713. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the total amount of funds allocated to each local authority under the local authority marine infrastructure scheme 2022-2023 since the formation of the current Government by county in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [60259/22]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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The Deputy may be aware that last January I announced the roll-out of the €35m Brexit Adjustment: Local Authority Marine Infrastructure Scheme 2022-2023. The BALAMI Scheme was one of the recommendations of the Seafood Sector Taskforce which I established following Brexit.  This scheme is proposed to be funded in the main from the Brexit Adjustment Reserve (BAR).

In April this year, after the first call of the Scheme, I approved €31.7m in funding for 110 projects around the Irish coast. Details of the funding allocated in tablular form is available online at gov.ie

- McConalogue announces approval of €31.7 million Brexit investment in Public Marine Infrastructure (www.gov.ie)  

The second call of the Scheme closed at the end of September. In view of the large volume of applications submitted I asked my Department to examine the scope to increase the BAR funding available for the scheme.   I hope to make an announcement on this in the coming days.

In the meantime, the projects already approved for funding will be delivered by the local authorities concerned. My Department will reimburse eligible project costs (pro-rata) on a matured liability basis following inspection of the capital works and verification of the evidenced expenditure.  Funding from the Brexit Adjustment Reserve must be availed of before the end of 2023. A number of terms and conditions must be met for projects under the Scheme, including pre and post inspections and evidence of costs incurred.

I must stress that responsibility for the development and maintenance of Local Authority owned piers, harbours and slipways rests with each Local Authority in the first instance. I am also mindful that the primary governance role for local authorities rests with the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage and any wider funding issues for local authorities should be addressed to that Minister.

Colm Burke (Cork North Central, Fine Gael)
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714. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of agri climate rural environment scheme applications that have been received by his Department to date; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [60348/22]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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The Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES) is the agri-environment climate measure in Ireland’s CAP Strategic Plan 2023 – 2027. It is the successor to the Green Low Carbon Agri-environment Scheme (GLAS) which was available under Ireland’s Rural Development Programme 2014-2020.

ACRES is a voluntary scheme whereby farmers, when approved into the Scheme, will undertake certain actions on their land for at least five years.

There are two approaches available to farmers under ACRES, namely the ACRES General approach and the ACRES Co-operation approach depending on the location of their holding. The Government has committed €1.5 billion to ACRES over its duration with the aim of facilitating the participation of 50,000 farmers. 

The intake into the scheme will be phased, with at least two tranches. This will help to spread the workload on advisors and enable them to allocate sufficient time for the preparation of applications, the completion of the Farm Sustainability Plans and selection of appropriate actions. 

Tranche 1 of ACRES opened for applications on Monday 17th October 2022 with the aim of securing a total of 30,000 ACRES contracts. As of Monday 5th December, 31,700 applications had been submitted with 17,295 submitted for ACRES General and 14,404 for ACRES Co-operation. The scheme will remain open for applications until 23:59 on Wednesday 7th December after which further updates on application numbers will be available.

Colm Burke (Cork North Central, Fine Gael)
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715. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of agri climate rural environment scheme general approach applications that have been received by his Department to date; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [60349/22]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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The Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES) is the agri-environment climate measure in Ireland’s CAP Strategic Plan 2023 – 2027. It is the successor to the Green Low Carbon Agri-environment Scheme (GLAS) which was available under Ireland’s Rural Development Programme 2014-2020.

ACRES is a voluntary scheme whereby farmers, when approved into the Scheme, will undertake certain actions on their land for at least five years.

There are two approaches available to farmers under ACRES, namely the ACRES General approach and the ACRES Co-operation approach depending on the location of their holding. The Government has committed €1.5 billion to ACRES over its duration with the aim of facilitating the participation of 50,000 farmers. 

The intake into the scheme will be phased, with at least two tranches. This will help to spread the workload on advisors and enable them to allocate sufficient time for the preparation of applications, the completion of the Farm Sustainability Plans and selection of appropriate actions. 

Tranche 1 of ACRES opened for applications on Monday 17th October 2022 with the aim of securing a total of 30,000 ACRES contracts. As of Monday 5th December, 31,700 applications had been submitted with 17,295 submitted for ACRES General and 14,404 for ACRES Co-operation. The scheme will remain open for applications until 23:59 on Wednesday 7th December after which further updates on application numbers will be available.

Colm Burke (Cork North Central, Fine Gael)
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716. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of agri climate rural environment scheme co-operation approach applications that have been received by his Department to date; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [60350/22]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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The Department of Agriculture, Food opened the system for the drafting of applications for the Agri-rural, Climate, Environmental Scheme (ACRES) in September this year, with the system fully opened for the submission of applications from 17^thOctober and remaining open until 7^thDecember.  Approved ACRES advisors could submit applications for both ACRES streams – general and co-operation project (CP), for applicants all over the country. 

The ACRES CP stream is open to farmers within eight pre-defined high-priority geographical areas known as Co-operation Project (CP) Zones.  Farmers in each of the CP Zones will engage in the Scheme with the assistance of their local CP Team.  These farmers will benefit from payment rates, up to a maximum €10,500 per year, should they participate and undertake environmentally ambitious actions. 

As of Monday 5^thDecember, the Department has received 14,404 applications for ACRES CP.

Colm Burke (Cork North Central, Fine Gael)
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717. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the expected timeframe from the date applications are received in respect of the climate rural environment scheme to the date that a final decision is taken and the applicants notified as to whether or not they have been accepted in to the scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [60351/22]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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The Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES) is the agri-environment climate measure in Ireland’s CAP Strategic Plan 2023 – 2027. 

It is the successor to the Green Low Carbon Agri-environment Scheme (GLAS) which was available under Ireland’s Rural Development Programme 2014-2020. ACRES is a voluntary scheme whereby farmers, when approved into the Scheme, will undertake certain actions on their land for at least five years.

There are two approaches available to farmers under ACRES, namely the ACRES General approach and the ACRES Co-operation approach depending on the location of their holding. The Government has committed €1.5 billion to ACRES over its duration with the aim of facilitating the participation of 50,000 farmers. 

The intake into the scheme will be phased, with at least two tranches. This will help to spread the workload on advisors and enable them to allocate sufficient time for the preparation of applications, the completion of Farm Sustainability Plans and selection of appropriate actions. 

The application system opened on Monday 17th October 2022 for the submission of applications under ACRES Tranche 1 with the aim of issuing a total of 30,000 approvals. The application system will remain open until 23.59 on Wednesday 7th December 2022. Application processing, including possible ranking and selection, will begin on 8th December 2022, and I expect approvals to issue towards the end of January 2023.

Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
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718. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the reason that many approved FAS/ACRES advisors did not have access to the GLAMS ACRES online planning portal on 20 September 2022; the period of time that elapsed before all advisors had access to the portal; and, if the advisors affected will be granted a time extension to prepare ACRES plans for their existing clients for each day that they were without access to the ACRES online portal. [60365/22]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) began the process of engaging with farm advisors in early 2022 in preparation for the launch of the Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES).  Advisors were invited to register their interest in participating in ACRES and were advised of the steps to be undertaken to be approved as an ACRES advisor. 

To participate in ACRES, advisors were required to:

- have completed the ACRES registration process;

- be approved under the Department’s Farm Advisory System (FAS);

- attend ACRES training.

To ensure the receipt of quality applications access to the Farm Sustainability Plan (FSP) portal on the Department's GLAM platform and to the ACRES application system was only made available to advisors once all criteria were satisfied. In addition, to access the Department's systems advisors were required to have secured system access codes from the Department’s Online Services Section and to create online links with their clients to enable them make submissions on behalf of their clients.

To support the ACRES training needs of advisors my department held three ACRES training and information sessions in Carrick on Shannon and Charleville in July and in Athlone in September. 

The online system for the submission of ACRES applications opened on 17th October 2022, with an initial closing date of Monday 21st November 2022, for the submission of applications under the current Tranche.

I am conscious that the submission of ACRES applications is creating a significant workload for, and pressure on, advisors.  For this reason, I extended the deadline for submission of applications for ACRES Tranche 1 to 23.59 Wednesday 7th December 2022.