Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 21 March 2023
1596. Deputy Michael Ring asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he can clarify a point in relation to commonage in the new ACRES scheme (details supplied) and the effect this is going to have on shareholders; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13955/23]
View answerCommonage has been included as a Tier 1 action within the Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES) to incentivise farmers to help ensure that habitats on such lands are maintained/restored to good condition through appropriate management practices.
Any participant in ACRES with eligible commonage lands undertook as part of the ACRES contract to allow all commonage parcels to be assessed by an approved commonage assessor, so that a result based score could be assigned to that commonage. A payment will be paid to that shareholder based on the score awarded. This assessment can be carried out without the consent or agreement of all shareholders where at least one shareholder is an ACRES participant. This results based score will assess all activities taking place on the commonage. These activities will be reflected in the score and therefore will ultimately affect the ACRES payment.
ACRES aims to incentivise shareholders to come together in commonage management groups to address factors that may be affecting the results based score on the commonage. ACRES participants in the Co-op zones will have recourse to non-productive investments and landscape action supports designed to improve habitat restoration. These capital investments provide a mechanism for score improvement with consequent positive impacts on the level of payment in subsequent years.
