Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Senator very much for raising those points. They are very relevant. On the future of ACRES, the reason it is taking time to come up with the solutions we are working through is that I want to be absolutely assured that they are permanent ones. I want to restore confidence in this scheme. It is a fantastic scheme. As I have said, almost half a billion euro has been paid out to farmers since the beginning of 2023. Negativity has centred around farmers not getting paid when they expected to get paid, which is not acceptable to me or my officials. It is something we are working through. It is a really frustrating space for all of us to be in. We have put extra resources into the team down at Johnstown Castle, changed our approach and built up the momentum we now have. When I first got this job on 23 January, 14,500 farmers were unpaid. That number is now down close to 5,000. As I have said, that is little comfort for those whose cases have not been resolved. We have divided the groups into cohorts and gone through it. The Senator said it was an IT issue but it is actually more complex than that. Different sets of criteria have caused problems and issues. In the short term, the easiest thing in the world would have been to take out a file and fix it with pen and paper but we would then have to do that every year and the issue would not be resolved. I did not want that. I wanted to make sure that, when a fix was put in place, it would fix it once and for all. We now have them all in measures. Of the 5,300-odd cases that are remaining, about 1,800 relate to rotational measures. They are all going to be dealt with in the same way with the same resolution. They are very close to being included in the next payment run or in the very near future because of the resolution.

The business team in Johnstown Castle has to identify the challenge and how to fix it, and the IT team needs to develop the software around that. Once it is developed it is there and the problem should not reoccur. Every year there will always be a certain number of individual problems, such as changing LPIS numbers for farmers. There are approximately 600 cases, particularly on ownership issues. Issues can arise with regard to change of ownership. Some of the challenges have been on our side in dealing with them. The fix is one which means the problem will not reoccur. It is to give this reassurance to farmers.

We have done farmers a disservice with the challenges we had at the beginning of the scheme. This is our way of explaining to people not involved in agriculture that farmers are up for the challenge of continuing to produce the top-quality food they do, and get a good income for it, and being up for doing their bit for the environment also. They signed up to ACRES in record numbers, which is why I am frustrated we got off to this bad start with the scheme. When these problems are resolved I want them to be fixed permanently so we can reinstill confidence in the sector in this regard. This is why we have put the extra resources and extra staff in place. The time it has taken us to work through these issues now means the solutions will resolve them and we will not have anything like a repeat of this. In the same way as with the start of GLAS, I remember being a member of the committee when it nearly fell off a cliff at the start. The system was overwhelmed as it was brand new. Once the issues were resolved early on they remained resolved and confidence grew in the system. That is where I want to be with ACRES.

When schemes go wrong we have to put our hands up and respond in real-time. From my perspective, I want to work with my officials. In the same way as I did with ACRES, I want to visit the section in the country, roll up the sleeves, understand where the problems are, look under the bonnet and identify where the blockages are. Members of the committee can contact me with individual representations and cases. I also have constituents. I am a farmer and all my neighbours are farmers. I tend to get individual cases very quickly and we cannot beat the power of an individual case to tell us where a problem is and how to work through it.

Large parts of the Department work seamlessly well. We have a payments section that handles €1.2 billion of EU payments. When things work well they are taken for granted and when they do not, rightly we are held to account. Where schemes go wrong we can put our hands up and respond to them in real-time. This is a very important part of it.

With regard to forestry, the delegated functions for this area are with the Minister of State, Deputy Michael Healy-Rae. I have no doubt he will come before the committee and will be able to talk all about forestry policy. We will closely together on issues such as the budget and making sure we strive to meet our very ambitious targets for forestry, just as I will work with the Minister of State, Deputy Grealish, on new market development and research and innovation, and with the Minister of State, Deputy Dooley, on fisheries. I know fisheries has its own dedicated committee now so Deputy Dooley probably will not be in here as much. We will work together as a team because at budget time we will all be fighting for the same thing and for those sectors. What our farmers, fishers and foresters do is very important. We have divided up the work and we are getting through it because it is very important for all of the people involved.