Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent)
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1572. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if a person (details supplied) whose REAP scheme ended in January 2023 can apply for the ACRES scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13446/23]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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The person named was approved for the Results-Based Environment-Agri Pilot Project (REAP) with a contract commencement date of 1st January 2021. I can confirm that the REAP contract of the person named ended 31st December 2022. The final REAP payment issued to the person named 19th December 2022.

The Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES) is the agri-environment climate measure in Ireland’s CAP Strategic Plan 2023 – 2027. It is a voluntary scheme whereby farmers, when approved into the Scheme, will undertake certain environmental actions on their land for at least five years.

Tranche 1 of ACRES opened for applications on Monday 17th October 2022 and all interested farmers were encouraged to apply. The scheme remained open for applications until 23:59 on Wednesday December 7th. The scheme received over 46,000 applicants. All valid applications submitted for Tranche 1 have been accepted into the Scheme, and farmers have recently received their formal notifications. All REAP participants were eligible to apply to ACRES.

Tranche 1 is now closed for applications, however the option to apply for Tranche 2 will be open to all eligible farmers. It is anticipated that Tranche 2 will open for applications later this year with contracts in that Tranche to commence from 1 January 2024.