Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The advance payment will be paid in the fourth quarter and the balance will be paid in early 2024. One point that is of key concern to farmers is that the decision letters are scheduled to issue from 8 March, yesterday. A certain number of applications were found to be invalid and a decision letter, notifying applicants of any rejections, giving the reason for the rejection and providing a facility for the decision to be reviewed, will be posted to those applicants. Farmers will have a certain number of days from the date of the approval letter to advise the Department as to whether they wish to proceed. It is all going to happen for farmers this week. Letters started to be posted yesterday and farmers will get that clarification. Unfortunately, a few are ineligible. They will be notified of that and the next steps will be outlined clearly for them.

This is very positive news. Farmers have demonstrated a great ambition to sign up in large numbers, more than was predicted by many people in the sector, for an agri-environmental scheme. I am delighted we have this challenge of dealing with a significant level of ambition for farmers to be part of this agri-environmental scheme, and I look forward to seeing a successful ACRES programme over the lifetime of the CAP.

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