Pádraig O'Sullivan (Cork North-Central, Fianna Fail)
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153. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of ACRES payments receivable at present; the number of applications that have been issued additional information requests; if his Department will provide an interim payment while applications are being processed; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25342/25]

Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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ACRES is the flagship environmental scheme provided under the 2023-2027 CAP Strategic Plan, with €1.5 billion in Exchequer and EU funding allocated over the course of the scheme.

Payments in respect of farmers' participation in the ACRES Scheme continue to issue on a weekly basis as cases pass all required validation checks.

Last week, I announced that Balancing payments in respect of the 2024 scheme year have commenced, with over €33 million issuing to 42,444 participants.

A total of €490 million has now issued since ACRES payments commenced at the end of 2023.

However, I am acutely aware that others are still awaiting payments.

In the case of the 2023 scheme year, 97% of participants have been paid in full. As regards 2024, 90% of participants have received their advance payments, and almost 88% of these have now received a balancing payment.

I want to be very clear that my Department is committed to resolving the issues that have been delaying the remaining payments as soon as possible, and is making progress in this regard. Additional resources have been deployed, and we are systematically working through the remaining issues associated with the outstanding cases. While my officials will make contact directly with participants seeking further information, these are carried out as required, and no log is recorded of such requests.

These issues can range from internal departmental matters such as the processing of changes of ownership and the finalisation of payment calculation processes, to external, applicant- or advisor-related matters such as the submission of Rare Breeds and Soil Sampling documentation.

While we are continuing to work on those internal issues, I would also take this opportunity to remind farmers and advisors to submit, as soon as possible, any outstanding documentation that will allow my Department to progress and complete their claims in the coming weeks.

My focus remains on getting all of the outstanding payments processed as quickly as possible, rather than diverting that focus away to the generation of interim payment.

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 in June 2025.