Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy. We have discussed it in a fair bit of detail. In terms of uptake, we have had 55,000 farmers apply. The Government has intervened to make sure every farmer who applied got approval and was taken into it when they applied. We had 46,000 applications in tranche 1. We had projected that 30,000 would apply but we intervened to accept all 46,000 applications. About 10,000 farmers applied in tranche 2. Again, we intervened and took all of those in. It is the one scheme in which there were challenges in relation to payments last year. I intervened to issue an interim payment to everyone who had not received their advance. It will always be stalled until probate is completed but, apart from a small number of instances like that, every farmer in ACRES by the end of March had received their 85% advance, or €4,000 or €5,000. Balancing payments started to issue over the summer and, as of the end of last month, 82% had received their balancing payment. Work is under way with the objective of getting that up to 95% by the end of this month.

I want ACRES to work well and be a positive experience for every farmer. It has been, in the vast majority of instances. Payments have been strong in most instances but not all. There has been frustration concerning the uncertainty around scores. I am constantly monitoring the scheme because I want it to be a positive experience for everyone and to make sure, as we get into year two, payments happen when they should and on schedule. We are on track to make advance payments to ACRES farmers by the end of November. I also want to see farmers who have already applied get approval for NPIs.

It has also been opened up for new applications now to make sure farmers get approval in a timely fashion for those too.

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