Fianna Fáil TD for Cavan-Monaghan Brendan Smith has welcomed the decision by his party colleague Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue that all valid ACRES applications will be approved. 

This announcement represents more than 46,000 ACRES applicants being accepted into the scheme for 2023. 

Funding had initially been budgeted for 30,000 applicants however Fianna Fáil Minister Charlie McConalogue has now confirmed that over 46,000 applicants will be accepted into the scheme. 

Deputy Smith said: “I’m delighted to see this announcement by Minister McConalogue that over 46,000 applicants will be accepted into ACRES 2023. Farmers are firmly behind becoming more environmentally sustainable and this announcement from Government is evidence of Fianna Fáil supporting farm families to do that. 

“ACRES applicants will be contacted by the Department in the next couple of days to formally issue letters of approval. I’d like to thank Minister McConalogue for this work on this and his strong commitment to farm families and rural Ireland.” 

ACRES is Ireland’s new agri-environment climate scheme under Ireland’s CAP Strategic Plan. This new €1.5 billion flagship agri-environment scheme is a farmer-friendly scheme to help address biodiversity decline while delivering an income support for up to 50,000 farm families in Ireland.

ENDS 

1/03/2023