Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)

I hope the Deputy always expects a good answer, not just to one question. I thank him very much for raising the agri-climate rural environment scheme, ACRES. The scheme is very important. I accept that there are challenges in regard to it for some farmers.

ACRES is the flagship environmental scheme provided under the 2023-27 CAP strategic plan, with €1.5 billion in Exchequer and EU funding allocated over the course of the scheme. There are currently just under 54,000 participants in ACRES.

Payments in respect of ACRES continue to issue on a weekly basis, as cases pass all required validation checks. A total of €512.2 million has now issued since ACRES payments commenced at the end of 2023. That is more than half a billion euro in a couple of years paid directly to farmers to support them in the measures they are taking.

In the case of the 2023 scheme year, almost 99% of participants have been paid in full. As regards 2024, 97% of participants have received their advance payments and almost 94% of participants have now received a balancing payment.

My Department is committed to resolving as soon as possible the issues that have been delaying the remaining payments. Additional resources have been deployed and we are systematically working through the remaining issues associated with the outstanding cases. These issues can range from internal departmental matters, such as the processing of changes of ownership and the finalisation of payment calculation processes, to external, applicant- or adviser-related matters such as the submission of documentation.

While we continue to work on those internal issues, I take this opportunity to remind farmers who have further information to submit to do so as soon as possible. My Department will continue to issue regular online updates in the coming period on the progress being made. I am not happy that some farmers are not being paid on time and when they expected to be paid. It was a top priority for me to address this issue when I came into this office at the end of January. I will not rest until the situation has been resolved for every last farmer. We have made very significant progress in recent months to get the number down to the current very low level. It is a top priority for me and my officials to continue to work until the situation has been resolved.

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