Erin McGreehan (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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287. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine for an update on the EU Commission's approval of Ireland's GAEC 2 approach; the collaboration his Department has had with the EU Commission on this; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24952/25]

Erin McGreehan (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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288. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine when farmers will expect to receive a confirmation of the rules under the EU Commission's GAEC 2. [24953/25]

Erin McGreehan (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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289. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the actions being taken to protect farmers under the EU Commission's GAEC 2. [24954/25]

Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 287 to 289, inclusive, together.

GAEC 2 is a mandatory condition of the payment of the Basic Income Support for Farmers (BISS). It is intended to protect peatlands and wetlands. The EU Regulation governing the CAP Strategic Plans requires all Member States to have a standard in place this year at the latest.

The proposal submitted by my Department was approved by the European Commission on 30th April 2025 and is now in place from this year onwards. It aims to strike the balance between the vital protection of peatlands and wetlands, and the farmer's right to continue with agricultural activity on this land. The introduction of this standard will have minimal impact on farmers’ day to day operations.

Farmers and other stakeholders have been part of a consultation process on the implementation of GAEC 2 that began in 2023. Communications have been issued to farmers and advisors throughout 2025. On 2nd May, following the European Commission's approval of the Standard, the Department issued a technical note to all agricultural advisors and the national agri-media. The Department has written to all individual farmers that have land subject to the new standard. My Department has also provided details to the Farm Advisory Services.

The technical notice is available at: www.gov.ie/en/department-of-agriculture-food-and-the-marine/press-releases/introduction-of-gaec-2-as-part-of-conditionality-from-2025/

John Paul O'Shea (Cork North-West, Fine Gael)
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290. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine when 2023 and 2024 ACRES payments will issue to a farm partnership in County Kerry (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24986/25]

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 1st January 2023. I can confirm that all ACRES payments in respect of 2023 have been finalised for this participant.

My Department has received a request to transfer this ACRES contract to a partnership. A dedicated team is working on change of contract issues such as this, with a view to resolving same and processing remaining 2024 advance payments as soon as possible.

More generally, I can assure the Deputy that everything is being done to pay, as soon as possible, all ACRES participants who clear pre-payment checks. Payments are issuing on a weekly basis in respect of all cases that pass the relevant checks.

John Paul O'Shea (Cork North-West, Fine Gael)
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291. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if a decision has been made on an appeal of ACRES penalties applied to a course provider in County Kerry (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24987/25]

Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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I note that a response issued from my Department on 23 February 2024 to the course provider in respect of his request for review initially submitted on 9 January 2024.

A fresh review of the application of the penalties in respect to the ACRES training courses in question will be undertaken, and will include the further information provided, and the Department will contact the course provider directly when completed.

Fionntán Ó Súilleabháin (Wicklow-Wexford, Sinn Fein)
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292. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine when applicants of the ACRES scheme will receive their long-overdue payments (noting approximately five thousand applicants are waiting for scheme pay since 2023); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24994/25]

Fionntán Ó Súilleabháin (Wicklow-Wexford, Sinn Fein)
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293. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the reason for the delay in ACRES scheme payments; if a solution has been provided for this issue; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24995/25]

Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 292 and 293 together.

Following the latest payment run on 12 May 2025, 43,575 ACRES participants, or just over 97%, are fully paid in respect of the 2023 scheme year. This means that 1,241 participants have not yet had their 2023 contract finalised, of which 947 have already received an interim payment of either €4,000 or €5,000. It should be noted that in many cases this payment will cover the contract value for the year.

In relation to the 2024 scheme year, 48,337 participants, or just under 90% of all participants, have now received their advance payment. A further 5,772 farmers are awaiting their 2024 advance payment.

The issues which are impacting on the making of payments in respect of each year are primarily the transfer 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.

In addition, a dedicated team has 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. Payments will continue to issue on a weekly basis as cases pass all required validation checks.

My Department will continue to issue regular online updates over the coming period on the progress being made, with the aim 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, and the remaining more complex cases paid by the end of June 2025.

In addition, 2024 scheme year balancing payments are scheduled to commence shortly.

Fionntán Ó Súilleabháin (Wicklow-Wexford, Sinn Fein)
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294. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine to commit to delaying the implementation of GAEC-2 to support the farming industry; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24996/25]

Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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GAEC 2 is a mandatory condition of the payment of the Basic Income Support for Farmers (BISS). It is intended to protect peatlands and wetlands. The EU Regulation governing the CAP Strategic Plans requires all Member States to have a standard in place this year at the latest.

The proposal was submitted by my Department and approved by the European Commission on 30th April 2025 and is now in place from this year onwards.

It aims to strike the balance between the vital protection of peatlands and wetlands, and the farmer's right to continue with agricultural activity on this land. The introduction of this standard will have minimal impact on farmers’ day to day operations.

Farmers and other stakeholders have been part of a consultation process on the implementation of GAEC 2 that began in 2023. Meetings with stakeholders have occurred regularly. Communications have been issued to farmers and advisors throughout 2025. On 2nd May, following the European Commission's approval of the Standard, my Department issued a technical note to all agricultural advisors and the national agri-media. My Department has written to all individual farmers that have land subject to the new standard.

The European Commission published new CAP simplification proposals yesterday (14th May). My Department inputted to Commission consideration of the simplification options. On conditionality, my Department asked for the removal of GAEC 2 from the Regulations, on the basis of overlap between these requirements and other national and EU legislation. However, I understand that the removal of GAEC 2 was not included in the Commission's proposal. So, GAEC 2 will remain a conditionality requirement.