Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 18 January 2023
1770. Deputy Brendan Griffin asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will consider expanding the new ACRES scheme (details supplied) in order to include more applications; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [63550/22]
View answerAgri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES) is the agri-environment climate measure in Ireland’s CAP Strategic Plan 2023 – 2027. It is a voluntary scheme whereby farmers, when approved into the Scheme, will undertake certain actions on their land for at least five years.
There are two approaches available to farmers under ACRES, namely the ACRES General approach and the ACRES Co-operation approach depending on the location of their holding.
The Government has committed €1.5 billion to ACRES over its duration with the aim of facilitating the participation of 50,000 farmers. This is a significant number so the intake into the scheme is being phased, with at least two tranches. Tranche 1 of ACRES opened for applications on Monday 17th October 2022 and closed Wednesday 7th December 2022. Phasing the intake into the Scheme helps to spread the workload on advisors. Intake into the Green Low Carbon Agri-environment Scheme (GLAS), the predecessor to ACRES, was also on a tranche basis for the same reason.
Applications for Tranche 1 are closed, however, it is anticipated that ACRES Tranche 2 will open for applications in Quarter 4 of 2023.
I am delighted to see the level of interest and uptake in ACRES with farmers very keen on participating in the scheme. Tranche 1 of the scheme is over-subscribed with over 46,000 applicants. The level of interest shows clearly how engaged and ambitious our farm families are for embracing the climate and biodiversity challenge.
ACRES has proven to be a strong and farmer-friendly scheme which has caught the imagination of the farming public. Regarding the large number of applications, I am currently reviewing the matter regarding the number of applications to be approved .
