In recent weeks, Michael Fitzmaurice TD has been fielding queries from farmers who had inspections as part of the ACRES scheme as far back as 2023 but who are still waiting for their payments to be processed.
He said that the Department must be in complete disarray and he labeleld the situation shameful.
“To think farmers were inspected in 2023, and were fully cleared that is they have no non-compliances, and are now in 2025 are still waiting for their payments is shameful.”
He said he has made contact with the Department of Agriculture on this issue and they have told him that the IT system is not able to distinguish between a farmer with a penalty and a farmer that was fully clear.
“These farmers are being abandoned by the Government. In good faith, farmers signed up for the ACRES environmental scheme where the Government promised so much but has delivered so little.
“We are aware of the dysfunction of the scheme in the CP zones, but this matter affects farmers in highland and lowland areas. These are farmers who were inspected and were found to be compliant with the terms of the scheme and are being left behind waiting on financial aid they need to remain sustainable,” he said.
“The Minister must immediately instruct the senior civil servants with responsibility for this scheme to resolve this issue. I can guarantee you one thing for certain, if the same senior civil servants who appear to twiddling their thumbs as farmers are left high and dry were left waiting for a payment of their wages or expenses since 2023, they’d have found a solution to the IT problem preventing them getting paid,” he said.
“Good faith is the basis of any successful government initiative and there was great fanfare when these schemes were announced. Farmers signed up to ACRES in good faith and farming bodies made recommendations in good faith, yet the Government has acted in bad faith by dragging their heels when it comes to getting the farmers paid the money they have agreed to pay them for their participation in this environmental scheme.
“In fairness to the Department in Port Laois, they managed to process 99% of payments for the schemes they are responsible for before Christmas, yet the Department in Wexford continues to be unable to get the work done and get farmers paid.
“It is almost exclusively the case that when there are problems with the IT systems in the Department of Agriculture they link back to the offices in Wexford.
The Minister must act with the greatest urgency to figure out what is going on in their department and resolve these issues. It is never the department that suffers from a system malfunction but always the farmer. And it is a disgraceful situation that fully compliant farmers are being penalised for the inefficiencies of a government department,”he concluded.
