Thousands of farmers waiting on payments

More than 3,700 Mayo farmers are still waiting for payments from the Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES).

A total of 3,744 farmers in the county are still waiting for payments. It is the highest in the country when compared to the other counties.

The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charle McConalogue told the Dáil that overall there are currently 28,084 farmers who still have not received an ACRES payment.

Minister McConalogue said a total of 17,145 farmers had received a payment from the scheme. The average payment that each farmer received was almost €4,500.

“ACRES payments commenced on December 15, 2023, with a total of €76.5 million issued to 17,145 participants in the ACRES General stream. ACRES General payments will continue over the coming weeks as applications are processed,” the Minister added.

However, because of what he described as “”additional complexity associated with the Co-operation Project (CP) stream", payments to farmers in the CP stream will only start in February.

The figures supplied to the Dáil also show the counties where the highest number of ACRES participants have been paid. These include Mayo with 1,939 farmers who have received payments, Galway with 1,893 farmers paid, Roscommon with 1,662 and Donegal with 1,186 farmers paid.

The other counties with the highest number of farmers who are still waiting on ACRES payments include Donegal (3,670), Galway (3,562), Kerry (3,130) and Cork (2,660). There are also 1,984 farmers in Co Clare who have not received their ACRES payments, 1,562 in Co Leitrim and 1,062 in Co Sligo.

This €1.5 billion scheme is intended to be a farmer-friendly scheme to help address biodiversity decline while delivering income support for up to 50,000 farm families.

The Irish Natura and Hill Farmers’ Association (INHFA) is now calling on Minister McConalogue to ensure that all farmers receive their full ACRES payment in February. 

"We are also calling for full 100% payment to be issued in February as farmers have waited long enough," said INHFA vice-president John Joe Fitzgerald.