Colm Burke (Cork North-Central, Fine Gael)
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583. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine when ACRES-Cooperation payments will be issued to persons (details supplied) for 2023 and 2024; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9629/25]

Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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The person named submitted an application under the ACRES Co-operation stream and was approved into Tranche 1 of the scheme with a commencement date of 1 January 2023.

I have made further enquiries and it is my understanding that my Department has been in contact with the herdowners explaining the current position in relation to the processing of their transfer request. This is to facilitate the change of herd number to the Registered Farm Partnership on the ACRES system in order to progress this application through the required validation checks (as is the case with all EU co-funded schemes, all ACRES applications must pass regulatory controls and validations before payment can issue)

My Department acknowledges the ongoing challenges faced by ACRES participants who have updated their herd numbers since the commencement of the contract. The process of updating herd details across the various systems used by ACRES has encountered difficulties, and my Department is actively working to resolve these issues as a matter of urgency.

I can assure you that everything is being done to pay, as soon as possible, all ACRES participants who clear prepayment checks.

Colm Burke (Cork North-Central, Fine Gael)
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584. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the steps being taken to ensure that all successful applicants of ACRES and ACRES-Cooperation schemes receive outstanding payments for 2023 and 2024; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9633/25]

Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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A total of €436 million has been paid out to farmers to date in respect of their participation in the Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES).

My Department has made significant progress in 2024. Almost all ACRES participants have received a payment (either interim or final) in respect of their participation in the Scheme in 2023, and remaining balancing payments continue to be processed.

ACRES advance payments for the 2024 scheme year commenced on 22 November 2024 as scheduled. Currently, a total of €188.9 million has been paid in advance payments in respect of the 2024 scheme year to 43,822 ACRES participants that have cleared all the required prepayment checks.

As is the case with all EU co-funded schemes, claims for payments under ACRES must pass regulatory controls and validations before payment can issue.

The issues which are impacting on the making of certain payments have been identified as primarily due to:

• Contract and ownership / partnership cases.
• Issues with scorecards (incorrect score, scorecards not submitted, alignment of scorecards.)
• Alignment of ACRES data with latest BISS information.