Cllr Declan Burgess is slamming the Department of Agriculture for it’s handling of the ACRES agri-environment climate scheme part of Ireland’s CAP Strategic Plan.
The €1.5 billion flagship agri-environment scheme is intended to help address biodiversity decline while delivering income support for up to 50,000 farm families in Ireland.
The Tipperary Cahir Cashel Cathaoirleach says the Department are failing to issue payments on time to the farmers who signed up to the scheme.
Cllr Burgess says although the Department focused heavily in ensuring farmers across Tipperary sign up to this scheme it hasn’t allocated resources to operating the scheme.
Farmers are depending on the scheme income and Cllr Burgess says this delay isn’t good enough and puts unnecessary stress on farmers who have put their faith in this scheme.
Cllr Burgess is also acknowledging the biodiversity crisis and notes that the scheme can contribute to helping the decline in biodiversity.
The Cashel based Cllr says he has written to Charlie McConalogue, the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, “to highlight his concerns and seek urgency in the Department in addressing the problems surrounding the issuing of payments”.
