Mr. Paul Savage:

Thank you, Cathaoirleach. First, I echo Mr. Morrin's thanks for the opportunity to update the committee today on progress with the implementation of the Pillar 2 schemes - agri-climate rural environment scheme, ACRES, targeted agricultural modernisation scheme 3, TAMS 3, the organic farming scheme and European innovation partnerships - which are operated by my colleagues headquartered in Wexford, and located in offices throughout the country.

The committee's focus today is on payments and I will concentrate my opening remarks on the payment situation across the various schemes which has improved significantly recently.

As members will be well aware, there have been delays with getting payments out to farmers for their participation in ACRES, particularly in respect of those who joined in 2023. These delays are sincerely regretted by the Department and we have been doing everything we can to both catch up with 2023 payments and to pay all farmers for their participation in the scheme in 2024 as soon as possible.

We have been making really good progress. Payment runs are now taking place every week and as of the end of last week, a total of €508 million has been paid to ACRES participants - €248 million in respect of farmers' participation in 2023 and €260 million in respect of 2024.

In the case of 2023, almost 99% of participants are now fully paid. A total of 578 farmers have yet to receive their final payments. Of these, 300 have already received an interim payment of €4,000 or €5,000, which in many cases will cover the entire amount of the payment due. In the case of 2024, advance payments have now been made to more than 96% of participants and balancing payments have been made to almost 89% of participants. In fact, by the end of this week when we run our next payment run, we expect those 2024 numbers to reach 97% to 98% for advance payments, and 94% to 95% for balancing payments. Payments will continue to be made on a weekly basis as we move into July, and the small overall proportion of remaining cases will be paid as soon as possible.

In some cases, the issue lies with participants themselves who, for example, may not have supplied documentation to support their applications. I would, therefore, urge ACRES participants in such circumstances to supply all outstanding documentation as soon as possible to allow their payments to be processed in the coming weeks.

In any event, the Department will continue to publish its weekly payment figures on its website, as well as turning its attention shortly to the 2025 advance payments, which are due to commence in November.

As regards ACRES non-productive investments, members will be aware that the first two tranches of applicants received their decision letters between December 2024 and April 2025, and work on these is under way on the ground. From a payments perspective, we expect that participants will be able to lodge payment claims from around the middle of July, and that payments will commence by early October at the latest.

On landscape actions, we expect to be able to open for applications in the next few weeks, with approval letters to follow later in 2025 and payments expected to commence in 2026.

Before leaving ACRES, I would like to acknowledge the fantastic work and dedication of my administrative, technical and IT colleagues in Wexford, and around the country, in delivering a truly ambitious and landmark scheme in what have been very difficult circumstances. They will continue to do so.

On TAMS, I would now like to turn to the TAMS 3, which, like ACRES, commenced in 2023 under the CAP strategic plan 2023-2027. Similar to ACRES, the need to put new administrative and IT structures in place while simultaneously opening and rolling out the scheme for participants, meant that it took longer than hoped to issue approvals and commence payments. In addition, more than 45,000 applications have been received across the first eight tranches of TAMS 3, compared to just over 15,000 received over the same number of tranches in the 2014 to 2022 TAMS 2 scheme, and all eligible applications are being approved.

Nonetheless, and again, thanks to the fantastic efforts of a very dedicated team of staff, we have been catching up quickly, with the result that all applications continue to be processed at both headquarters and local office levels. Almost 30,000 approvals have issued and payments to the value of €73 million have issued to TAMS 3 participants and are issuing at a rate of up to €2 million per week.

Given the scale of the approval numbers to date, the Minister has flagged that ranking and selection may need to be applied from the current tranche onwards. This was also the case with TAMS 2, so is not unusual, and the Department will continue to review the overall funding position on an ongoing basis.

Turning then to the organic farming scheme, we have seen really good progress in the number of participants and in the issuing of payments. The numbers in the scheme have risen from just over 2,000 in 2022 to 4,850 in 2024, and payments have risen from just over €12 million in respect of 2022, to almost €58 million in respect of 2024.

At this point, almost all participants have received their 2024 advance payment, and 96% have received their balancing payment. This level of performance is, again, down to the tremendous work of Department colleagues across the administrative, technical and IT streams.

European innovation partnerships operate differently to the more traditional scheme-based model, with funding allocated to operational groups that, in turn, pay farmers for participation.

Under the CAP strategic plan, the two flagship projects are the farming for water EIP and the breeding waders EIP. A range of other projects are being supported under the themes of animal health and welfare, gender balance, digital technologies, generational renewal and environmental sustainability. The Minister has also just launched the final EIP under the CAP strategic plan aimed at enhancing habitats and biodiversity in an arable environment.

Some payments have been made to participants in the farming for water EIP, to a total of around €1 million, but most projects have not yet reached the stage where payments to farmers would be due to be made. Again, I wish to acknowledge the great work of the Department's team on that.

I hope the Cathaoirleach and members have found this update useful and I look forward to answering any questions the committee may have.