Minister McConalogue announces second pay run in respect of balancing payments for ACRES 2023

Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue T.D, today announced that the issuing of balancing payments in respect of participation in the Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES) in 2023 is continuing.

The Minister said:

“Payments will issue to 4,404 ACRES Tranche 1 participants across both the ACRES General and ACRES Co-operation approaches. As participants received either an advance payment last November or an interim payment of €4,000 or €5,000 in February and March of this year, the €4.3 million in payments that I am announcing today are balancing payments. This brings payments made to date to ACRES participants to just over €233 million.”

The Minister continued:

“ACRES balancing payments will continue to issue to participants on a fortnightly basis, until all participants are paid in respect of scheme year 2023.”

A series of information leaflets to provide an overview of the way in which payments are calculated have now been published by the Department. These leaflets are available on the Department’s website here.

Following the issue of ACRES payments, each recipient will receive a letter detailing information about the scores that determined the level of their payment.

Notes for Editors

ACRES payments for 2023 commenced over the period December 2023 to January 2024, when €88.35 million was issued in advance payments to 19,719 ACRES General participants.

In recognition of the complexity of the ACRES scheme and the time required to fully process all payments, Minister McConalogue issued interim payments to all other participants in February and March 2024.

Payments of €4,000 were made to 6,917 ACRES General participants and €5,000 to 18,144 ACRES Co-Operation participants, totalling €119.56 million.

The total payments issued in June 2024 relate to 31,081 participants, and come to a value of €25.4 million. Those that have received interim payments will have the value of those interim payments deducted from the payments issuing in the coming days.

Payments will continue to issue on a fortnightly basis as cases are cleared. Many of these will continue to require engagement with farmers and/or advisors, and every effort will be made to resolve these as soon as possible.

ACRES is delivered through both multi-functional prescription and results-based actions. The level of payment for carrying out a results-based action is linked to the quality of environmental outcomes achieved. The higher the environmental quality score, the higher the payment. In addition to the core payment of a maximum of €7,000 per annum that is available to CP participants, a further €17,500 is available over the five-year period of the scheme for the implementation of Non-Productive Investments and Landscape Actions, bringing the potential ACRES contract value for CP participants to €52,500 over the five years.

The EU’s common agricultural policy (CAP) is a partnership between society and agriculture that ensures a stable supply of food, safeguards farmers’ income, protects the environment and keeps rural areas vibrant. EU countries implement the CAP at national level with a tailored CAP Strategic Plan for the period 2023-2027.

Ireland is leading the way in delivering a national results-based scheme, with over 25% of all agricultural production land scored. Over the five years of the Scheme, more than 54,000 farmers will be supported directly to deliver measurable environmental gains.

Comprehensive information on ACRES is available on the Department’s website here.