Acres Scheme has let down farmers in North Clare

*Members of Burren IFA have met with the Minister for Agriculture. 

NORTH CLARE farmers have been let down by the Acres Scheme, a local representative has claimed. 

In a proposal to the West Clare Municipal District, Cllr Joe Killeen (FF) called on Clare County Council and his party colleague, Minister for Agriculture, Charlie McConalogue (FF) along with the Department of Agriculture to “expedite the delayed payment under the Acres Scheme to all farmers post haste”.

Progress on the piloting of a new scheme in the Burren and hen harrier areas was also flagged by Cllr Killeen and he stressed that it needed to be “designed, implemented and road tested here before being rolled out in all areas of the country as Acres 2 in future years”.

He also wishes for a meeting to be organised with the Burren IFA and representatives from the Council to “clarify some issues”.

Acting senior executive officer in the West Clare MD, John Corry committed to writing to both the Minister and Department of Agriculture.

Speaking at the March meeting of the West Clare MD, Cllr Killeen noted that the first Acres scheme had been proposed to farmers and sent out. “The accurate assessment hasn’t been determined, this Acres scheme is a follow on scheme from the original GLAS scheme, the payments for which came in during April”.

Farming families had expected between €4,000 to €5,000 into their accounts in November but Christmas and January “passed with no payment but then March arrives with only an estimated payment”. Cllr Killeen stated, “Farmers did as they were asked, they kept to deadlines which were extremely tight”.

Burren Beo’s farming for conservation programme, The BurrenLife has not been matched by Acres, the Corofin representative flagged as he sought the revival of a similar scheme to what was in place. “Some people felt the new Acres scheme wasn’t quite as rigorous and wouldn’t use the same results”.

Officials from Clare County Council have met with the Clare IFA Executive, Cllr Killeen acknowledged. He outlined that ten percent of the population in the West Clare MD “are involved in agriculture, forestry and fishing”. The meeting of the Burren IFA with Council officials should focus on secondary routes, heritage requirements, road issues, hedge cutting, ash dieback and the renovation of old buildings, he maintained.

Burren IFA representatives have already met with the Minister “who said he would look into it”, Cllr Killeen noted.

Seconding the proposal, Cllr Joe Garrihy (FG) commended the former programme run by Brendan Dunford and Burren Beo, “it was work that was recognised worldwide in conservation”.