The Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme, or ACRES, is the central agri-environment climate measure in Ireland’s CAP Strategic Plan (CSP) 2023-2027. It is a flagship agri-environmental project with funding of €1.5bn committed over the scheme lifetime. This is the largest amount ever committed to an agri-environment scheme. ACRES will play a huge role in driving environmental improvements while also providing crucial income support to farm families.
As of October 17th there are:
• 45,650 active ACRES contracts under Tranche 1.
• 28,945 of these contracts include parcels or actions where scorecards are required to be submitted by farm advisors. This excludes commonage scoring as these are submitted by the ACRES CP teams.
• Over 98% of the scorecards have been submitted.
• The validation of the scorecards submitted is not an isolated process and will take place with all other necessary pre-payment validation checks. In order to process payments as quickly as possible, the opportunity to appeal the scores allocated will be granted at a time after payments have been made.