Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein)
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44. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will provide an update on the delays relating to payments under the agri-climate rural environment scheme, ACRES; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8332/24]

Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein)
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Will he provide an update on the delays relating to ACRES payments, in particular on when the interim payments he announced will be made? These have been welcomed broadly. When will those be paid?

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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I thank Deputy Kerrane. Payments to farmers are particularly important. I place a big emphasis on them in the context of the role played by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. That is why last year, which was the first year of the new Common Agricultural Policy, CAP, we put a massive effort into making sure that we would set dates at the start of the year that could be delivered upon. In the context of the adjusted dates we used last year, for example, for the pillar 1 schemes, we succeeded in delivering on those dates and in paying 90% of farmers on the dates we set. This rate is very high by any standards in the first year of a new CAP.

The same has been the case for the vast majority of other schemes. One significant exemption has been ACRES, which has proved particularly challenging. We managed to pay between 17,000 to 18,000 of those farmers in the general stream, back in December. However, the Department and the team have been working hard to try to ensure all are paid. The target was to pay both the co-operation project scheme and general scheme in that month. That was not possible. A new date of February was set in the hope that everything would be in place to allow payments to be made, but this has proved complicated. The Department was not in a position to meet the February date. I intervened and directed that an interim payment be made. I did so because I had made a commitment to farmers. I know how important this payment is to farmers. ACRES is a significant scheme, with 50% extra funding in it compared with the previous green low-carbon agri-environment, GLAS, scheme. It is important to many farmers who had hoped to have that before Christmas.

I have directed that an interim payment of €4,000 be made to every farmer in the general stream who has not yet been paid and €5,000 to every farmer in the co-operation project stream. Farmers in the latter stream have not been paid yet. Overall, this means that 26,000 farmers will now get either €4,000 or €5,000. Every farmer who participated in ACRES will receive that payment if they have not been paid already. The Department is on track to have this money paid into farmers' accounts by the end of the month. This will mean that it will land in farmers' accounts in the days thereafter. It will be issued by the end of the month in accordance with the direction I have givens. The Department is working hard to resolve the remaining issues and to put in place the structures to make sure that the balancing payments can be paid by June.

Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein)
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I thank the Minister. That confirmation of payment at the end of the month is very welcome. As I said, we welcomed the interim payments. All the farm organisations welcomed them as well. This is a scheme that we all want to see work. It is, as the Minister described it, the flagship environmental scheme. There was huge demand for the scheme, and it was welcome that all 46,000 applicants were allowed in. I acknowledge that. However, when farmers are so willing to take part in something like ACRES and doing the work sometimes at a cost to themselves, the Department really needs to keep its side of the bargain. It is extremely regrettable that these payments are being made so late. We need definitive confirmation regarding the payments that were supposed to be made in full by May. We need to know whether that timeline is going to be adhered to in the context of the remaining payments.

The Minister will be aware that concerns have been raised in relation to tax complications because farmers will now receive two payments in 2024. Has the Minister looked at that? This is a significant concern for farmers and is happening through no fault of their own. Obviously, these payments are taxable.

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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Tax averaging is available to farmers to even out what can be uneven incomes that come from farming, particularly in terms of prices and sales. It is also available in the context of the two payments farmers are due to receive.

This is the first time a decision to offer an interim payment has been made by a Minister. I am taking this approach because I understand the importance of ensuring that farmers are paid. By the end of the month, every farmer who participated in ACRES last year will have been paid. Some will receive €4,000 and others will receive €5,000. A number will be paid more than their due because we are paying this as a standard payment. I wanted to make sure the payment was as high as possible for farmers in order to ensure that they would get a good sum of money into their accounts early, and by February. In some instances, it will have to be balanced out earlier. However, it will be a unique situation whereby farmers will be paid too early and will have to pay some money back, rather than, as normally is the case, waiting for payments to come into their accounts. Every farmer will get a payment. In some cases, farmers will get more of the payment than they otherwise would have been due earlier.

Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein)
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It is important to clarify that the Minister is saying that, aside from the five-year averaging option that just over 5,000 farmers avail of, which is a very small amount, that this is the only option available when they will receive these two payments. The five-year averaging option is the only option for farmers to try to reduce the tax they have to pay this year. If that is the case, the averaging option needs to be communicated to farmers and to ACRES participants because it is not their fault that the payments are coming late and that they are going to be paying more tax this year because the two payments will come this year rather than one last year and one this year.

The Minister and his Department were obviously generous in allowing the 46,000 in. The target was 30,000, that was what was supposed to go in. Approximately 9,000 have applied. Is the ceiling being kept to just allow 4,000 in? Will the Minister tell us how he will determine how those 4,000 will be chosen to come into ACRES? It is a real pity that when we have such a good scheme and farmers are willing to do it, and we are encouraging environmental practices on our farms, that a number of those who apply and who want to join the scheme will not be able to do so.

Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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Is Deputy Kerrane agreeable to Deputy Cairns coming in with a supplementary question?

Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein)
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Yes.

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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In reply to Deputy Kerrane, as I say, the income averaging which is available to farmers is available in this case. The objective has been to make sure that farmers get paid as early as possible. That was not possible in December, but we are making sure that everyone will be paid by the end of this month.

As matters stand, I only have funding for 4,000 farmers this year . As the Deputy knows, I accepted all 46,000 in last year. That had not happened before, but it was important that we made that step to make sure everybody who applied could get in. That put pressure on the system and made for a great deal of extra working for the team as well. The ranking and selection was published as part of the application process. That will be used to select the 4,000 for which we have funding.

In reply to Deputy Cairns, work is being finalised in terms of the agreement dates with the farmers' charter of rights. I expect that to conclude soon. I have committed to move back to the previous dates that were in place under the previous CAP. We are now into a rinse-and-repeat process in the context of most of our schemes. However, as I say, last year we adjusted the those dates and had stuck to what some farm organisations had been advising, we would not have been able to pay the same high percentage on the date we set out. That would have been very problematic for those who would not have paid. Achieving 90% payment rates on those schemes was important. We will soon be announcing the payment schedule for all of the various schemes and working again to deliver on that. My team worked very hard last year to make sure we could deliver on the dates that were set out earlier in the year.