Peter Burke
Question:434. Deputy Peter Burke asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will revise the criteria for the current ACRES (details supplied). [18971/23]
View answerTuesday, 25 April 2023
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The Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES) is an agri-environment climate measure in Ireland’s CAP Strategic Plan (CSP) 2023-2027. The Government has committed €1.5 billion to ACRES over its duration and every effort is being made to ensure the Scheme not only addresses a range of environmental, climate and biodiversity objectives but is also attractive to farmers as it is necessary for them to actually undertake the actions to achieve the targeted results.
I was pleased to recently announce that I am in a position to accept in all 46,200 applications who applied in Tranche 1 of the scheme. I can also confirm that I will be opening Tranche 2 later this year.
I would encourage farmers to look at the eligibility criteria in each of the Tiers in ACRES General in more detail and to consider all of the actions available in ACRES. There are a number of ways in which farmers may be eligible for entry into ACRES under Tier 1 or Tier 2. A farmer may, for example, be eligible for Tier 2 priority entry to the ACRES General approach, if he/she adopts at least one of the tree planting actions which are Tree planting (minimum ‘min’ of 100 trees), Planting trees in riparian buffer zones (min 10 trees) or Tree belts for ammonia capture from farmyards (min 0.18 hectare). Interested farmers should review all available actions with their adviser in advance of Tranche 2 opening.