Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats)
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865. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the reason for the delay in payments under the acres scheme; the number of farmers impacted, by county; when the issue will be resolved; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2691/25]

Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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The following tables present the number of participants awaiting their ACRES 2023 balancing payments or their 2024 advance payments. All herds recorded as awaiting a payment for their 2023 balancing payment have been included in the table awaiting an advance payment for 2024.

It is also worth noting that almost all of those awaiting 2023 Scheme Year balancing payments have already received interim payments of either €4,000 or €5,000 in respect of their participation in the Scheme in 2023. A total of €119 million in such interim payments was paid to farmers in February and March of 2024.

Awaiting 2023 Scheme Year Balancing Payments

Awaiting 2024 Scheme Year Payments

There are a number of possible reasons why payments have not yet issued, including:

• Changes of ownership/transfers of contracts due to a variety of circumstances;
• Queried or unsubmitted scorecards in respect of results-based payments;
• Outstanding queries on the relevant BISS applications; and
• Reconciliation of mapping-related discrepancies, for example between BISS and ACRES applications, and between scorecard and DAFM mapping data.