Carol Nolan (Offaly, Independent)
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357. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the measures being taken to resolve the delays affecting ACRES payments; if he anticipates an increase in departmental payment processing staff to ensure such delays do not occur again; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22212/25]

Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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A total of almost €454 million in payments has issued under ACRES to date.

The issues which are impacting on the making of payments in respect of each year are primarily the transfers of contracts, late or non-submission of scorecards, and alignment of ACRES information with data held by the Department on other IT systems. My Department is actively resolving the remaining issues through, for example, the development of the required IT functionality and the investigation of issues associated with specific contracts. In some cases, action is required by the participant to progress the payment claim.

Despite these challenges, payments continue to issue on a weekly basis. A dedicated team has also been put in place to complete the outstanding 2023 cases, and resources are being allocated, where required, to ensure that remaining payments are made as soon as possible.

My Department will continue to issue regular online updates over the coming period on the progress being made, with the expectation of having the vast majority of payments in respect of farmers’ participation in ACRES in 2023 and 2024 made by the end of May 2025, with the remaining more complex cases paid by the end of June 2025.