Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)

I completely agree that it is important to get this right. When I got this job on 23 January, there were 14,500 farmers who had signed up in good faith but had not been paid. The problem was on my Department's side through systems failures that had happened. We worked really hard and put extra staff on it. I visited the team in Wexford. We looked at the systems and tried to change them around. There was a lot of overtime and a lot of people put their shoulder to the wheel to get the momentum back up.

At that time, no regular payments were being made but the issuing of payments has gathered considerable momentum this year, as knowledge and experience of the scheme has improved and as functionality has been deployed to address the challenges that were encountered. I appreciate the patience that has been shown by participants as we resolved these issues.

My Department has been developing solutions to solve issues permanently rather than applying quick fixes. It is really important that any solutions developed avoid the same issues and the very concerns that the Deputy has outlined. ACRES has paid out almost €700 million to farmers in this country since 2023. It is a really positive scheme that has delivered massively for our environment and that is what I want to get back to focusing on. We are in that space now.

See this speech in context