Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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243. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine when farmers who are members of ACRES will be paid; when his Department will issue outstanding scores to farmers; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38490/24]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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Balancing payments in respect of participation in ACRES in 2023 started to issue in mid-June 2024. Payments in full have now been issued to 38,701 participants. Payments will continue to issue on a regular basis as cases pass all required validations.

With regard to scorecards, a summary report on the scores assigned is issued to all participants following the processing of their payment. The scorecard summary will set 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. Scorecards have now issued to 35,000 farms across the two tranches of the scheme.

ACRES advance payments in respect of participation in the Scheme in 2024 are scheduled to commence in November 2024, with the process informed by, and benefiting from, the experience gained from the processing of the 2023 scheme year payments.