A Leitrim Councillor is calling on the Minister for Agriculture to give farm advisors more time to score land so farmers will get their ACRES scheme payments on time.
Scoring involves the planner assessing a farmers land to see what different biodiversity habitats and vegetation structures a farmer needs to improve on.
Under the present scheme, three months have been allocated for advisors to score land.
The level of payment a farmer may achieve will be determined by the payment rates for the actions selected to improve their land.
According to Brendan Barry, the summer months of May, June or July are not enough time for farm advisors given the amount of work involved in doing each plan.
The Sinn Fein councillor raised the issue at a Ballinamore MD meeting, calling for advisors to score land in September in order to cater for the amount of farmers getting into the scheme in the first year.
