Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. I have received many queries in the ten days since, unfortunately, we had to announce we would not be able to pay the farmers we had been working hard to pay in December. ACRES has been a great success, with significant uptake. It is working well in terms of getting farmers to participate in it. It is on course to make significant and expected payments to farmers. There was massive uptake of the scheme. We expected 30,000 farmers to apply this year but 46,000 applied. For the first time, I stepped in to accept all those 46,0000 applicants. Everybody who applied this year got into the scheme, participated in it and is due a payment. They will not be without a year where they are due a payment.

As 46,000 applicants were accepted, there was significant pressure on the advisers to administer the scheme. They did great work in terms of getting the scoring done. I extended the dates for scoring to be completed, given the numbers involved. The Department worked very hard to pay the farmers in the co-operation scheme and those in the general scheme by the end of November or in December. Unfortunately, we ran out of road in that regard and have not been able to make payments. In the context of systems development, checks and having it developed and in place in an effective way, it will not be possible to make all the payments that were due at the end of November or in December in time, despite everybody's best efforts. That is a source of great disappointment to me as Minister and to the team working on that.

We will be able to pay 18,000 farmers, namely, those in the general scheme, next week. As the co-operation scheme is more complicated in terms of system development, it will be early February before those in that scheme will begin receiving payments. Everybody is working hard to get this done I grew up on a farm and know the importance of payments coming in. I know this is a blow to farming families before Christmas. If have done everything I can to try to get the payments made. The team is working hard to get the payments out in the best timeframe possible.

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