ICSA president Sean McNamara has said the Department of Agriculture must address the classification of ACRES interim payments as overpayments on their systems as a matter of urgency. “The system adopted by the Department to manage ACRES payments has classified interim payments as overpayments, which means payments from all other schemes have been, and still are, at risk of being seized in an attempt to claw back these alleged overpayments. This is a ludicrous situation that needs to be rectified.” he said.

In late February, Minister McConalogue announced interim payments for participants of Tranche 1 of ACRES who had not received an advance payment for their participation in the scheme. Over the following weeks, interim payments of €4,000 were made to those in the ACRES General approach and €5,000 to participants in the ACRES Co-operation Project approach.

“The Department’s system is flagging interim payments as overpayments in cases where the exact value of delayed ACRES payments has not yet been calculated. Consequently, the system is reclaiming funds from payments for other schemes as they become due and will continue to do so for future payments from all other schemes.”

Continuing Mr McNamara said, “Unfortunately, the debacle over ACRES payments still appears to have no end, and this latest calamity is just adding insult to injury. There is no justification for seizing farmers’ payments for other schemes just because they made such a mess of ACRES payments.”

ICSA will be raising this issue at a Farmers’ Charter meeting in Dublin this afternoon (Tues 2 July).

ENDS