Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)

As the Deputy will be aware, ACRES is the flagship environmental scheme provided under the CAP Strategic Plan 2023-2027 with €1.5 billion in Exchequer and EU funding allocated over the course of the scheme. Payments in respect of farmers' participation in the ACRES scheme continue to issue on a weekly basis as cases pass all validation checks. Last week, I announced that balancing payments in respect of the 2024 scheme year have commenced with more than €33 million issuing to 42,444 participants. A total of €490 million has issued since ACRES payments commenced at the end of 2023. However, I am acutely aware that others are still awaiting payments. This is a source of great frustration for me. I have been dealing with it since the minute I assumed this role. In the case of the 2023 scheme year, 97% of participants have been paid in full. As regards 2024, 90% of participants have received their advance payments and almost 88% of these have now received a balancing payment. To be clear, my Department is committed to resolving the issues that have been delaying the remaining payments as soon as possible and is making progress in this regard. I know that is cold comfort if you are one of the few who still have not been sorted. We have made significant progress and built momentum, which I continue to do.

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