Cathy Bennett (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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141. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the total number of farmers in Cavan and Monaghan impacted by delays to ACRES payments to date; the number who still have not been paid; the reason for such delays; when payments are expected to conclude; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13739/25]

Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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I can confirm that a total of 2,020 farmers with holdings in County Cavan are currently active participants in ACRES. Of this total, 166 farmers are currently awaiting their 2024 scheme year advance payments, of which 54 are also awaiting finalisation of 2023 payments.

With regard to County Monaghan, 953 farmers are currently active participants in the scheme, with 64 participants currently awaiting finalisation of 2024 scheme year advance payments, 21 of whom are also awaiting finalisation of 2023 payments.

A total of €247.4 million has been paid to 42,631 participants, or 95% of all ACRES participants, in respect of their participation in the Scheme in 2023. A further 2,302 farmers have yet to receive their final payments for 2023. Of these, 2,008 have already received an interim payment, which in many instances will cover the entire payment due.

Advance payments totalling €193.5 million have now been paid to 44,939 farmers in respect of their participation in ACRES in 2024. This number of recipients represents 83% of all ACRES participants. Advance payments in respect of scheme participation in 2024 have still to be made to 9,316 ACRES participants across the two tranches.

Certain issues such as transfers of contracts, late or non-submission of scorecards, and alignment of ACRES information with data held by the Department on other IT systems, have contributed to the delay in the making of those payments. My Department is actively resolving the remaining issues through, for example, the development of the required IT functionality, the re-allocation of resources and the investigation of issues associated with specific contracts. In some cases, action is required by the participant to progress the payment claim.

My Department's intention is to have the outstanding payments made by June 2025. As cases are resolved, they are added to the next scheduled pay run. Pay runs are taking place every ten days in order to ensure that these payments are issued in a timely manner. In addition, my Department will be issuing regular online updates over the coming period on the progress being made.