Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 27 January 2026
794. Deputy Michael Cahill asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine to urgently intervene and allow for an agri-climate rural environment scheme, ACRES, payment in the case of a person (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6251/26]
View answerThe person named submitted an application under the ACRES Co-operation (CP) stream and was approved into Tranche 1 of the scheme, with a commencement date of 1st January 2023.
I have made further enquiries into the matter, and it is my understanding that ACRES officials from my Department have been in direct contact with both the herdowner and his adviser in relation to this case.
Where applicable, scoring must take place at least three times during the ACRES contract. However, the option to score in additional years is available.
ACRES officials have outlined that the onus lies with the herdowner to ensure that their Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS) return is filed correctly. The option to re-score in 2024 was recorded as “yes” on the applicant’s BISS 2024. The scorecards were therefore sent to the AgriSnap app for scoring for 2024. As the scorecards were not submitted, the herdowner received a €0 ACRES payment.
In addition, the applicant’s scorecards would have been sent to his adviser’s, AgriSnap, when the scoring season opened in June 2024. As per circular 24/2024, a report function was added to GLAM for advisers in July 2024 that allowed all ACRES advisers to check the scorecard status and details of all their clients. The herdowner’s scorecards would have shown as unsubmitted on this report.
