Minister McConalogue announces balance of 2023 ACRES payments
- Published on: 19 June 2024
- Last updated on: 15 April 2025
The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue, today announced that the balance of payments in respect of participation in the Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES) in 2023 are commencing this week.
The Minister said:
“Payments will issue to 26,677 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 €21.1 million in payments that I am announcing today are balancing payments. This brings payments made to date to ACRES participants to almost €230 million.”
Approximately 4,000 more farmers will be issued a balancing payment before the end of June, subject to clearance. Thereafter, payments will continue to issue on a fortnightly basis as contracts are cleared for payment.
In recognition of the large-scale results-based element of ACRES, which will be new for many participants, the department, in conjunction with the ACRES Co-operation Project (CP) Teams, has prepared a series of information leaflets to provide an overview of the way in which payments are calculated. These leaflets are now available on the department’s website.
Following the issue of payments, each recipient will receive a letter detailing information about the scores that determined the level of their payment.
The Minister continued:
“I appreciate that scoring, and associated results-based payments, is a new approach for a lot of farmers. The publication of the leaflets, and correspondence that is being issued to all participants, will be an important resource to understand how individual payments were determined.”
The department advised that there will be opportunities for ACRES CP participants to add value and increase the level of their annual payment over the lifetime of their contracts. A farmer’s contract under ACRES is for five years, and ACRES CP participants will be able to avail of Non-Productive Investments (NPIs) and Landscape Actions (LAs) to improve environmental outcomes and to increase the score received and, ultimately, the level of payment. Decision letters in respect of the Tranche 1 NPI application process are planned to issue before the end of this year, and it is anticipated that the application window for Landscape Actions will open early in 2025.
The Minister concluded:
“I was pleased to have been able to secure places for all farmers that wanted to participate in ACRES Tranche 2, bringing the total number of farmers in the scheme to over 54,000. These applicants will shortly receive an Information Pack consisting of an Approval Summary - which will give them information on the actions approved under their contract - and a copy of the Farmland Plant Identification book. This is an important guide for farmers to help identify a variety of plants that can have a beneficial effect on our biodiversity and the scoring of their land for the results-based payments.”
Notes
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 payments commencing this week are being made to 17,927 ACRES General and 8,750 ACRES Co-operation participants. Those that have received interim payments will have the value of those interim payments deducted from the payments issuing in the coming days.
Ordinarily, the value of the payments now being made would come to a total of €63.4 million (€19.4 million for ACRES General participants and €44 million for ACRES Co-operation participants). However, interim payments to the value of €42.3 million have already been made to these participants. When these amounts are deducted from ACRES payment values, the net amount now being paid is €21.1 million.
It is expected that 4,000 - 5,000 additional ACRES participants will be paid before the end of June, and payments will continue on a fortnightly basis thereafter 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.
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, including the Farmland Plant Identification Guide.
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.