The Irish Natura and Hill Farmers Association (INHFA) have held meetings with Minister McConalogue in Kerry and Donegal as they seek to find workable solutions to ongoing issues around ACRES payments.
Speaking on this National Chair Pheilim Molloy stressed that “the 4,000 farmers currently awaiting balancing payments must be paid in addition to those farmers that are still awaiting their first ACRES payment.”
In their meetings with the Minister the INHFA delegations (which were led by Pheilim Molloy in Donegal and John Joe Fitzgerald in Kerry) outline the urgent need to get these payments made in addition to addressing the ongoing issues farmers are experiencing, especially in ACRES CP areas.
These issues Molloy detailed include “lack of information on commonage scorecards which has for many farmers led to low scores and payment rates that has seen demands from the DAFM for the repayment of monies.”
In addition to this, farmers have, he added “being denied the opportunity to address issues that could improve their score and the support through specific actions because the DAFM have failed to facilitate actions under the Non Productive Investments (NPIs) and Landscape Actions (LAs).”
In their meetings Molloy detailed how the Minister “was presented with a document outlining INHFA proposals to resolve many of the issues while also ensuring that all farmers currently waiting on payments are paid. The delegations also pushed the Minister for further engagement between the INHFA and Department staff”
In his response the Minister agreed to facilitate such a meeting as soon as possible and also agreed to consider how the scheme could be improved.”
Since the meetings with the INHFA delegations the Minister has announced an ACRES scheme review which Molloy has welcomed. However, the INHFA Chair stressed that “any review must involve active engagement with the key stakeholders including farming organisations such as the INHFA.”
In concluding Molloy returned to the ongoing issues around ACRES and demanded that “no farmer be left behind, adding that the INHFA proposals to pay all farmers on a score of eight can be the basis to ensure farmers are paid, while also providing the time to address more fundamental issues that have dogged the scheme.”