Sinn Féin spokesperson on Agriculture, Claire Kerrane TD, has called on Minister McConalogue to ensure flexibility for ACRES participants who received interim payments, not by choice, where they will be asked to make repayments and that this be done on a case by case basis.

Speaking this afternoon, Kerrane said:

“Most people will remember the oversubscription of ACRES when it was first rolled out – farmers signed up in their droves and above what was expected. They took part, they carried out the necessary actions required and then they weren’t paid.

“Instead, two months after ACRES participants were to be paid, they received interim payments. Those in the general scheme received a lump-sum payment of €4,000 and those in ACRES co-operation received a lump-sum payment of €5,000.

“This came about because the Department failed to pay participants on time, and as they should have, based on their scores.

“The Department advised all participants who received the interim payment in writing at the time that if there is a difference in the interim payment and the payment as per their scores i.e. their payment should be less than the interim amount, that payment will be noted on their account as debt and offset against future payments.

“Back in May, I asked Minister McConalogue to instruct his Department to look at repayments on a case by case basis to ensure that no farmer would be put under financial pressure or see future payments substantially cut in one go. His response was that any money owed would be ‘offset against future payments’.

“I am calling on Minister McConalogue to do the right thing for those farmers who signed up to ACRES, did everything asked of them and who were then let down by his Department.”