The Irish Farmers' Association - IFA

Lobbying Organisation The Irish Farmers' Association - IFA

Date published 20 Jan, 2023

Relevant Matter Public policy or programme

Public Policy Area Agriculture

Period 1 Sep, 2022 to 31 Dec, 2022

Specific Details Agri Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES)

Intended results To highlight that Agri-environment schemes are a critical source of income each year for family farms, contributing to the enhancement of our environment, while improving the environmental and economic sustainability of our farming enterprises. The new proposed Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES) has the potential to continue to fulfil this role, however, further changes are necessary in order to achieve this. Agri - Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES) Budget ACRES is proposed to have a maximum participation of 50,000 farmers. Based on participation levels in GLAS and the number of farmers who applied for the REAP scheme, IFA are strongly of the view that 50,000 places in ACRES will be insufficient. This issue needs to be addressed to ensure that all valid applications are accepted into the scheme in 2023. The overall maximum payment rate of €10,500 in the CP zones which includes non-productive investments is not enough and will represent a cut for some farmers when compared to previous schemes. It is very restrictive to ring fence €7,000 for results-based and general actions in the CP zone while also setting it as a maximum before adding non-productive investments and landscape actions The proposed payment ceiling of €10,500 should not include non-productive investments and landscape actions. Payment rates across the measures need to be improved upon, the payment rate of €10,500 per farmer should be available to all farmers and not be limited to just 20,000 farmers in the CP zones Opening of Scheme on Tranche basis At present, ACRES is planned to open over at least two tranches. At the end of this year, all GLAS and REAP contracts are scheduled to be completed. If there is a lag between GLAS and ACRES due to the tranche-based approach, some farmers will be left out of an agri-environment scheme for a year, posing a real threat to farm incomes. It is vital that no farmer is without an environmental scheme payment for 2023. IFA believe that this can be achieved by rolling over the 12,000 GLAS 3 participants for 2023 or alternatively, by paying an upfront payment for tranche 2 ACRES participants in 2023, similar to the way REPS payments were issued in the past. The initial application process is complicated and time consuming. To help alleviate the anticipated bottleneck in the application process, the initial application could be simplified in order to get the applications prepared and some of the requirements of the Farm Sustainability Plan completed at a later stage. Base Payment With the exception of commonage greater than 10ha there is no proposal in ACRES so far to pay an annual base payment for participation similar to what was paid in REAP. ACRES results-based actions should have a minimum base payment across all actions and the base payment should not be limited to commonage. Actions Low Input Permanent Pasture (LIPP) which was a very important measure for farmers in GLAS has been seriously curtailed and consequently, farmers are left with the option of Extensively Grazed Pasture which is a prescription-based action with much lower payment rates or Low Input Grassland (LIG) / Low Input Peat Grassland (LIPG) both of which are result-based measures. . The consequence of selecting any of those measures to be the successor of LIPP is either, lower payment if selecting the Extensive Grazing Pasture or for many farmers reduced production if selecting the results-based options. IFA proposes a payment of at least €300/ha for the Extensively Grazed Pasture option and flexibility be given to farmers to select up to 20ha for a combination of Extensively Grazed Pasture and Low input grassland / Low Input peat grassland. This combination should not have a cap of 10 ha on either, e.g. choose a combination of 6 ha for Extensive Grazing Pasture and 14 ha for Low input grassland / Low Input peat grassland or a combination of 14 ha for Extensive Grazing Pasture and 6 ha for Low input grassland / Low Input peat grassland. The ACRES draft specifications indicate that farmers in the Co-Operation Project (CP) zones are to select result-based measures on all their land in the CP zone. General options are only available to them to select if they have all the potential results-based payment exhausted and they also have land outside the CP zone. This will not work for all farmers in the CP zones and more flexibility must be given to farmers to choose general actions for land farmed within the CP zone.

Name of person primarily responsible for lobbying on this activity Tim Cullinan IFA President, Damian McDonald IFA Director General, Elaine Farrell IFA Director of Governance & Oireachtas Engagement, Michael Biggins Rural Committee Chair, Denis Griffin, Senior Policy Executive, Rachel Moloney Policy Executive, Henry Walsh Galway IFA Environment Rep and Stephen Canavan Galway IFA Chairman.

Did any Designated Public Official(DPO) or former Designated Public Official(DPO) carry out lobbying activities on your behalf in relation to this return? You must include yourself, and answer Yes, if you are a current DPO or a DPO at any time in the past. (What is a Designated Public Official?) No

Did you manage or direct a grassroots campaign? No

Was this lobbying done on behalf of a client? No

Lobbying activity

The following activities occurred for this specific Subject Matter Area.

Letter (2-5)

Social Media (2-5)

Meeting (2-5)

Email (2-5)

Designated public officials lobbied

The following DPOs were lobbied during this return period on this specific Subject Matter Area. These DPOs were involved in at least one of the Lobbying Activities listed above, but not necessarily all of them. As returns are specific to a Subject Matter Area the above Lobbying Activities may be associated with multiple returns.

Charlie McConalogue Minister (Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine)

Hildegarde Naughton TD (Dáil Éireann, the Oireachtas)

Simon Coveney Minister (Department of Foreign Affairs)

Seán Canney TD (Dáil Éireann, the Oireachtas)

Steven Matthews TD (Dáil Éireann, the Oireachtas)

Seanie Power Councillor (Waterford City and County Council)

Liam Brazil Councillor (Waterford City and County Council)

Declan Doocey Councillor (Waterford City and County Council)

Pat Nugent Councillor (Waterford City and County Council)

John Cummins Senator (Seanad)

Martin Heydon Minister of State (Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine)

James Browne TD (Dáil Éireann, the Oireachtas)

Paul Kehoe TD (Dáil Éireann, the Oireachtas)

Verona Murphy TD (Dáil Éireann, the Oireachtas)

Johnny Mythen TD (Dáil Éireann, the Oireachtas)

Brendan Howlin TD (Dáil Éireann, the Oireachtas)

Ciaran Cannon TD (Dáil Éireann, the Oireachtas)

Colm Hayes Assistant Secretary (Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine)

Bill Callanan Chief Inspector (Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine)

Sinead McPhillips Assistant Secretary (Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine)

Martin Blake Chief Veterinary Officer (Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine)

Paul Dillon Assistant Secretary (Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine)

Patrick Donohoe Special Adviser (Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine)

Declan O'Rourke Special Adviser (Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine)

James Browne Minister of State (Department of Justice)