Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 26 October 2023
58. Deputy Verona Murphy asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine how many new applications will be accepted to the agri-climate rural environment scheme, ACRES, scheme in the forthcoming tranche for this month; if he believes that sufficient resources have been allocated to fund this scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [47056/23]
View answerThe first part of this question is very straightforward I hope a straightforward answer will follow. How many new applications will be accepted for ACRES this month? Along with thousands of farmers, I am very interested to know if the Minister believes that sufficient resources have been allocated to fund this scheme.
I secured funding of €1.5 billion for ACRES. This is the largest amount ever committed to an agri-environment scheme. The Government committed this funding to support what is the central and flagship agri-environment climate measure in Ireland’s Common Agricultural Policy Strategic Plan 2023-2027. ACRES will not only play a huge role in driving environmental improvements, it will also provide crucial income support to farm families for the work they are doing.
Interest in the scheme has been unprecedented with 46,000 applications received for the first tranche last year. In response to this environmental ambition from Irish farmers I worked to ensure that all eligible applicants were admitted last year, immediately engaging with the stakeholders to ensure that this could and would be achieved.
Through ACRES, we are leading the way in delivering a national results-based scheme, with over 25% of all agricultural production land now scored. Farmers in Ireland are being recompensed for the high quality of their habitats. This is a reflection of the investment and commitment by farmers to enhancing environmental conditions and ecosystem services for all. For example, ACRES will deliver over 500,000 trees and more than 2,000 km of hedgerows.
I referenced our CSP and the fact that the new CAP will run from this year to the end of 2027. Working with my ministerial colleague, Deputy Michael McGrath, in what was then the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, I secured a 50% increase in national co-funding for the CSP period. I am continuing to work with the Minister, Deputy Paschal Donohoe, in terms of stepping that out. This is the largest ever increase in national co-funding under CAP and it is profiled over a five-year period. As part of that 50% increase we have allocated funding to accommodate 50,000 farmers in ACRES. In our budget for next year we have profiled to step it up to that 50,000. Obviously, we will have to look to the future in terms of what will be possible but the budget allocation for next year is for an additional 4,000 farmers.
I have had lots of engagement with farmers in a variety of sectors over the four years that I have been a Deputy and I know there is a great willingness within the sectors to contribute. Farmers are very climate conscious, as is evidenced by the number of applicants for ACRES. My question is whether the Minister believes there is sufficient funding under ACRES to accommodate all of the farmers who are interested. It does not seem to me that €1.5 billion will be sufficient to accommodate 50,000 farmers.
From a climate change perspective, the reality of regulations across the sectors is that we are piling the costs onto dairy farmers at the expense of tillage farmers. We are driving up the cost of land for tillage farmers in order to accommodate dairy farmers vis-à-vis the nitrates directive. It is for good reasons that the largest amount of money ever has been allocated and the Minister knows that. Again, my question is whether we have enough money for the applicants of 2023.
Over the five-year period, the funding we have profiled for ACRES is sufficient to meet the needs of 50,000 applicants. Over the course of the next year we will get to that 50,000 figure and obviously we will then have to assess how many more farmers are in the scheme and monitor that as it goes forward. In terms of next year's budget, we will be bringing it up to the 50,000 and we have agreement and budgets in place to be able to fully fund those 50,000 farmers. It is really encouraging, but not surprising, to see the uptake because there is significant extra funding in ACRES in comparison to the previous scheme, green low-carbon agri-environment scheme, GLAS. There has been a 50% increase in ACRES funding and a 50% increase in the overall funding pot. The scheme has been well received. The scoring and the provision of extra time for that has worked well. Advisers have done great work and farmers are stepping up very strongly. I assure the Deputy that there is full funding there to meet the needs of 50,000 applicants ,but it is capped at 50,000 as things stand.
In the event that there are more than 50,000 applicants, can extra funding be drawn from somewhere? I agree with what Deputy Kerrane said earlier. I am concerned that we have such input and co-operation from our farming sector but in major sectors such as forestry, we are unable to get to grips with what should be one of our greatest assets in terms of reducing carbon emissions, which is to sow trees. We are letting farmers do it through ACRES. They are planting trees and hedges and are doing so quite efficiently but the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine cannot do it. We just cannot get to grips with it. We are penalising every other sector because we are not planting trees efficiently. If we were doing so and improving our forestry in the way we should, we would not have to be kowtowing to the EU in relation to the nitrates directive. There are other mechanisms and the Minister knows it. There are lots of other ways that we can reduce our carbon emissions but we are concentrating solely on the agricultural sector and penalising farmers to within an inch of their lives.
We have got to grips with our forestry sector. Massive work has gone into it over the past couple of years. As the Deputy knows, the outcome of a court case in 2019 radically changed the way each licence had to be assessed. This led to a big backlog in licence applications but we have now worked our way through that. Anybody applying for a forestry licence today will receive it within six months if it does not require an impact assessment or within nine months if such an assessment is needed. We have dealt with that and the system is now very close to equilibrium. We have also introduced a new forestry scheme which has increased the premiums available to farmers on an annual basis by up to 66%. We have also increased the number of years that a farm family can avail of premiums from 15 to 20. We have put massive resources and investment into forestry and have also put significant funding into tillage. We have invested heavily in ACRES which is why we are seeing such a strong uptake.
