More farmers will soon be able to benefit from extra income delivered for participating in extended or newly announced Government environmental schemes.
A further 9,000 farmers are to be accepted into the Agri Climate Rural Environmental Scheme (ACRES), while smaller schemes to protect water quality and species of breeding wader birds are also set to open.
ACRES is the €1.5bn flagship environmental Government programme for farmers under the 2023-27 Common Agricultural Policy scheme.
It pays farmers to carry out environmental actions on their holdings up to a maximum €7,000 per year.
An additional 4,000 places were then announced for tranche two of the scheme, but 9,000 farmers applied.
Now, Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue has announced that all will be accepted.
Mr McConalogue said the level of interest shown by farmers has been hugely encouraging.
He said: “The ambition of farmers had to be recognised and so I engaged with the Department of Public Expenditure.
“I was delighted to reach an agreement with Minister (Paschal) Donohoe that all applicants to Tranche 2 can be accepted into the scheme.
“This matches farmers’ commitment to the environment with the Government’s own commitment.”
Farming organisations had recently been calling on the minister to make sure all applicants were admitted to the scheme.
They have also been sharply critical of ongoing delays in ACRES payments, with some farmers being left for months before receiving interim payment, which began last month.
Mr McConalogue previously said the ACRES payment delays were due to the complexity of redesigning the department’s computerised payment system to take account of the new scheme terms.
Water quality protection scheme
Separately, a multi-million euro scheme to encourage farmers to take actions to protect water quality will be launched in Mullingar, Co Westmeath later today.
The European Innovation Partnership (EIP) on Water scheme will make €50m available for up to 15,000 farmers over five years to adapt their farms and the farming practices to ensure rivers, lakes and groundwater are protected from agricultural pollution.
EIP schemes fund projects for farmers, scientists and other experts to develop new practices that are environmentally sustainable.
A separate EIP programme worth €25m designed to protect breeding wader birds such as curlews, lapwings and snipe will also open shortly.
Farmers who carry out actions that protect existing wader populations and support population recovery can apply to the scheme.
