Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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575. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine to provide a breakdown of the number of farmers still waiting on ACRES payments; the percentage of farmers who have been paid in full; the number who have been underpaid and overpaid, respectively; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29385/24]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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ACRES payments for 2023 commenced over the period December 2023 to January 2024, when €88.35 million was issued in advance payments to 19,719 ACRES General participants.

In recognition of the time required to fully process all payments, due to the complexity of the scheme, I ensured that interim payments issued to all other participants in February and March 2024. Payments of €4,000 were made to General participants and €5,000 to Co-Operation participants. All tranche 1 participants received either an advance or an interim payment.

My Department commenced balancing payments on the 19th of June. A total of 31,808 participants have been paid to date, with total payments made to ACRES participants since last December now amounting to just under €234 million. Further balancing payments will continue to be made on a fortnightly basis as cases are cleared.

The following table represents active tranche 1 applications.

Of those paid a balancing payment to date, the number where the interim payment was greater than the calculated payment for the scheme year, giving rise to a debt, is 6,797. While there is an obligation on the Department to make recoupments in the cases of any overpayment arising from interim payments at the first opportunity, I have asked my department to engage positively with any farmer that contacts them and show flexibility in cases of financial hardship. Further details of how farmers can contact the Department to request this flexibility will be notified to farmers in the near future.