Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 8 November 2022
1282. Deputy Pa Daly asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will extend the deadline for Glas first-tranche applicants beyond 10 November 2022; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [54995/22]
View answer1306. Deputy Michael McNamara asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will grant an extension to the timeframe for applications regarding the new ACRES scheme (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [55472/22]
View answer1310. Deputy Paul Kehoe asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if there has been any further change to the deadline for submission of applications to the ACRES scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [55502/22]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 1282, 1306 and 1310 together.
ACRES (Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme) is Ireland's new agri-environment climate scheme under Ireland's CAP Strategic Plan 2023 - 2027.
This new €1.5 billion flagship agri-environment scheme is a farmer-friendly scheme to help address biodiversity decline while delivering an income support for up to 50,000 farm families in Ireland.
Farmers may apply for one of the approaches available under ACRES, namely the ACRES Co-operation approach, available to farmers in eight defined high priority geographical areas, or the ACRES General approach which is available nationally outside of the eight ACRES Co-operation zones.Farmers must engage the services of an approved ACRES advisor to prepare and submit the application. This includes the preparation of a Farm Sustainability Plan (FSP) which forms the bulk of the application. The intake into the scheme is phased, with at least two tranches, to spread the workload of advisors. The online system for the submission of ACRES applications was opened on 17th October 2022 with, as I have mentioned, a closing date of Monday 21st November 2022 for the submission of applications under the current Tranche.
There are currently approximately 700 advisors approved for ACRES. Significant assistance was provided to advisors in advance of the formal opening of the Scheme to enable them to engage with their clients and commence preparation of the Farm Sustainability Plans.
Such assistance included the provision of training, both in-person and by webinar, the publication of draft Specifications in August and the opening of the Department’s Generic Land Management (GLAM) system in mid-August for training, information and map printing. All of these steps enabled advisors undertake preparatory work on the development of FSPs and applications in advance of the opening. Support material has also been provided to advisors including system instruction manuals and guides, and video tutorials on the steps to be taken in preparing and submitting the application. The application screen itself has been developed to make this final step as straightforward as possible. Responses to technical queries from advisors continue to be provided on a timely basis. I appreciate that, notwithstanding the level of assistance provided and there being a five-week application period, the submission of ACRES applications is creating a significant workload for advisors. For this reason, I am monitoring the level of applications and the overall situation on an ongoing basis.
