The Minister for Agriculture is being called on not to send farming in parts of Clare back several decades.
Minister Charlie McConalogue is meeting with farming representatives from this county today, to discuss the ACRES initiative.
The new Agri Climate Rural Environment Scheme, the successor to GLAS, is due to come into effect in January and will have two payment levels.
The general approach approach offers a maximum payment of just over 7,300 euro, with the co-operative approach paying out up to 10,500 euro.
But with some of the older schemes now being mainstreamed into ACRES, many farmers are concerned that they could lose between 5 and 10 thousand euro in payments.
This is the case for farmers in North Clare, who previously subscribed to the highly successful Burren Life Programme, which is estimated to have contributed more than 20 million euro to the local economy.
Representatives will be meeting with Agriculture Minister Charlier McConalogue today, where they’ll urge to not to set farming in the area back 20 years.
Michael Davoren of Burren IFA says transition to the new scheme is “deja vu” for farmers in North Clare.
The Minister is also being called on to review the Hen Harrier Scheme, a pilot programme in East Clare, which like Burren Life was a production-led scheme.
Maghera Councillor Pat Hayes fears that without this scheme, hard work by farmers and 25 million euro in funding spent nationally on the Hen Harrier project will have been for nothing.
The Fianna Fáil Councillor fears that under ACRES, farmers in the Slieve Aughty areas will be penalised, rather than rewarded.
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