Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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1294.To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of ACRES scheme participants that received a preliminary payment under the ACRES scheme of €4,000 for the general scheme and €5,000 for the co-operation scheme; the number of these that were found subsequently to have been overpaid and who now owe money to the Department, broken down by county, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter.[35614/24]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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Advance payments in respect of participation in the Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES) in 2023 commenced in December 2023. By the end of February 2024, 19,719 farmers had been paid a total payment value of €88.4m. However, when it became apparent that additional time would be required to pay the remaining participants, I arranged for nationally funded interim payments to be made to those participants who had not received their advance payment. Payments of €4,000 were made to General participants and €5,000 to Co-Operation participants. In total 25,061 farmers received the interim payment with 18,144 in ACRES CP and 6,917 in ACRES General. In total, payments of just under €208 million issued to 44,780 ACRES participants by early March 2024.

The Department began the process of finalising 2023 payments in June, and part of this process involves netting the finalised ACRES payment against the interim payment. The following table gives a breakdown of the contracts by stream that have been finalised for the scheme year 2023 to date.

This will leave approximately 8,600 cases to be finalised for 2023.

As the deputy may be aware, 2023 ACRES participants were advised in February and March of this year, when the interim payments were being made, that if their total annual ACRES payment was subsequently calculated to be less than the interim payment, the amount of the overpayment would have to be repaid. To date, of the interim payments finalised, 6,975 herds have been identified as having an overpayment and those with an overpayment greater than €100 have been notified.

The requested breakdown of figures per county will be forwarded directly to the Deputy when the next payrun is processed.

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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1295.To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of ACRES scheme participants that have received their up-to-date scoring and have been paid any balance owing to date or have been notified of an over payment, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter.[35615/24]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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The following table represents the number of 2023 scorecard reports and the number of commonage reports issued to ACRES participants as of 05^thSeptember 2024.

I can confirm that all 2023 ACRES participants that have received their Scorecard Reports have had their 2023 ACRES payment finalised.

As the deputy may be aware, ACRES participants were advised in February of this year that, if their total 2023 ACRES payment was subsequently calculated to be less than the interim payment, the amount of the overpayment would have to be repaid. To date, of the interim payments finalised, 6,975 herds have been identified as having an overpayment and those with an overpayment greater than €100 have been notified.

Farmers have also been notified of repayment options. My Department has offered a flexible approach in the collection of these overpayments, and encourages any farmer not in a position to make the full refund, or to have it recovered from the next DAFM payment (for example the ANC payment), to engage with the Department in relation to alternative payment arrangements, which include the possibility to recover the outstanding amount from the next ACRES payment.

Brendan Griffin (Kerry, Fine Gael)
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1296.To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of farmers that have been issued payment under the Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme; the number of farmers who have received letters seeking repayment of monies received, based on final scores assigned in respect of the results based actions; whether a detailed explanation of the scoring system will be provided to each farmer, by county, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter.[35618/24]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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Advance payments in respect of participation in the Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES) in 2023 commenced in December 2023. By the end of February 2024, 19,719 farmers had been paid a total payment value of €88.4m.

However, when it became apparent that additional time would be required to pay the remaining participants, I arranged for nationally funded interim payments to be made to those participants who had not received their advance payment. Payments of €4,000 were made to General participants and €5,000 to Co-Operation participants. Payments totalling just under €208 million had therefore been issued to 44,780 ACRES participants by early March 2024. To date, all eligible participants in both ACRES General and ACRES CP have received a payment for 2023 scheme year.

My Department began the process of finalising 2023 payments in June, and part of this process involves netting the finalised ACRES payment against the interim payment. The following table gives a breakdown of the contracts by stream that have been finalised for the scheme year 2023 to date.

This will leave approximately 8,600 cases to be finalised for 2023.

As the deputy may be aware, 2023 ACRES participants were advised in February and March of this year, when the interim payments were being made, that if their total annual ACRES payment was subsequently calculated to be less than the interim payment, the amount of the overpayment would have to be repaid. To date, of the interim payments finalised, 6,975 herds have been identified as having an overpayment, and those with an overpayment greater than €100 have been notified. This figure is likely to change as further balancing payment calculations are finalised.

A summary report on the scores assigned is issued to all participants following the finalisation of their payment. As advised previously, the scorecard summary sets out the scores achieved for each parcel, with management tips on how to maintain or improve the score achieved, and hence potentially increase payments in subsequent years.

These summaries are made available to farmers in the document manager in their AgFood account, followed by a hard copy by post. As of the 5th of September 2024, 24,373 scorecard reports and 6,300 commonage scorecard reports have been both uploaded to Agfood and have also issued by post. These figures are not mutually exclusive and some participants will be included in both report categories. These reports will continue to issue as more payments are finalised.

The requested breakdown of figures per county will be forwarded directly to the Deputy when the next payrun is processed.