Aindrias Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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55. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the reason for continuing delays in advance payments for participation of ACRES in tranche 1 under general ACRES and co-operation ACRES; the rationale on interim payments being made to participants; to provide a timeline for when calculations will complete to issue full payments due to farmers under ACRES; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8312/24]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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As the deputy is aware, there was unprecedented demand under the Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES) Tranche 1. This is a reflection of the interest amongst farmers in taking on actions to address climate, biodiversity, and environmental issues. In response to this ambition by farmers, I ensured that all eligible Tranche 1 applications were approved, with just under 46,000 active contracts now in place.

ACRES payments commenced on December 15th, with payments issuing in the initial payment run to two-thirds of all ACRES General participants. Further payments have been made in 2024 to additional ACRES General participants that had cleared payment validations. Over €88 million has now issued to almost 20,000 ACRES General participants.

ACRES is also an ambitious scheme, with results-based actions - for the first time under any large-scale environmental programme - constituting an important element. This is in line with the objective of delivering the maximum possible environmental benefit under the scheme. This however brings with it new challenges and new complexities - particularly in relation to the Co-operation Project stream, and also in relation to commonages - which have to be fully addressed before all payments can issue.

Every effort continues to be made to ensure that all of these payments can be issued as quickly as possible. This work is ongoing and is a priority, but is likely to take a further period to complete. In these circumstances, I have decided to make an interim, nationally-funded, payment to those farmers affected across ACRES General and Co-operation.

I can confirm that the rate of this interim payment will be €4,000 for those in ACRES general and €5,000 for those in ACRES Co-operation Projects. It is my intention to have this interim payment delivered to those farmers affected across ACRES General and Co-operation by the end of this month.

Intensive work will continue on the calculation of the full payments due to farmers under Tranche 1 of ACRES, and when this work is completed, the final payments issued to farmers - which will take place in June - will take into account the interim payments already made to the relevant participants.