Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent)
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42. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will accept all 46,000 applicants to the current tranche of the ACRES scheme; the plans he has to introduce a gap payment to farmers locked out of the ACRES scheme in 2023; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9693/23]

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

It is a flagship agri-environmental scheme that will pay farmers €1.5bn over the lifetime of the scheme ACRES will play a huge role in terms of driving environmental improvements while also providing a crucial income support to farm families.

As the Deputy mentions, Tranche 1 of the Scheme, which opened for applications last October, was significantly oversubscribed, with over 46,000 applications received for the 30,000 places allocated to be filled under Tranche 1.

I was pleased to announce last week the acceptance of all valid applications received for Tranche 1 into the Scheme. In view of this decision, no farmer, who submitted a valid application for ACRES, is ‘locked out’ so a gap year in his/her income from participation in an agri-environmental scheme does not arise.

Subject to ACRES participants undertaking the actions, in accordance with their ACRES contract and the Scheme Specifications and submitting their claim for payment as part of their application for the Basic Income Support for Sustainability Scheme (BISS), advance payments in respect of ACRES contracts are due to issue in the fourth quarter of this year.

As I mentioned, when announcing my decision last week, the effective and timely operation of the scheme will require intensive and focused effort from all concerned including from my Department, from advisors, from Co-operation Project Teams and from farmers.

For those farmers who were not in a position to apply for the Scheme in Tranche 1, they will have an opportunity to apply for it in Tranche 2. It is proposed that Tranche 2 will be opened for applications in the fourth quarter of this year, with contracts in that Tranche to commence from 1 January 2024.