112 interim ACRES payments worth €542,000 made to Louth farmers
Interim payment has been issued to participants in Tranche 1 of the scheme
112 interim payments worth over €542,000 have been made to Louth farmers that are participants in Tranche 1 of the Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES), and who have not yet received their advance payments for participation in the Scheme.
The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue, TD, yesterday announced the issue of an interim payment, with the overall amount being paid to Irish farmers in this first pay run, amounting to €113.617 million to 23,709 ACRES participants. The payment is to be reflected in participants bank accounts in the coming days.
ACRES is Ireland's agri-environment climate scheme under Ireland's CAP Strategic Plan. This €1.5 billion flagship agri-environment scheme is seen by the Government as a farmer-friendly scheme to help address biodiversity decline while delivering an income support for up to 50,000 farm families in Ireland.
News of the payments was welcomed by Louth based Senator Erin McGreehan. Senator McGreehan said: "It is excellent to see confirmation that those ACRES participants who have not received an advance payment under the Scheme will receive an interim payment into their bank accounts in the coming days.
"This interim payment is welcome as work continues to process further general advance payments under ACRES. The rate of the interim payment is €4,000 for those in General and €5,000 for those in the Co-operation Project.
“The Minister and his Department have committed that these payments will be issued by the end of this month. There are, however, a small number of applications requiring further processing, and the interim payment in respect of this cohort will issue in about 10 days’ time.
“I am pleased that the officials in the Department of Agriculture will continue with the ACRES process as a key priority. This is the first year of the scheme, these payments are of enormous importance to farmers across Louth and it is vital that farmers are recognised for their environmental contributions.”
Members of Louth IFA held a demonstration outside Louth County Council buildings in Dundalk recently, ahead of the Louth County Council February meeting, to lobby councillors as part of a national campaign, seeking fairness for farmers.
One of the issues raised by farmers at the protest was in relation to CAP payments, with a spokesperson telling the Dundalk Democrat that “the CAP budget is like a swiss army knife which is supposed to fix all objectives. New environmental measures that are coming out are being funded out of CAP payments."
“We want CAP money to be left for food production money, which is income for farmers, which ultimately subsidises the production of food, but ultimately again, subsidises the consumption of food."