Mairéad Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)
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522. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine to provide an update on the ACRES payments for 2024; the number of applications processed to date and the number of applications received; if the majority of payments will be made by the end of May as he previously stated; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27718/25]

Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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As of 26 May 2025, a total of almost €492 million has issued since ACRES payments commenced at the end of 2023.

Balancing payments in respect of the 2024 scheme year commenced on 15 May 2025, with €34.3 million issuing to 45,112 participants to date. The remaining 2024 balancing payments will issue in parallel with remaining 2023 payments and 2024 advance payments.

In the case of the 2023 scheme year, I can confirm that a total of just under €248.4 million has been paid to 43,680 participants, or just under 98% of participants have now been paid in full.

As regards 2024, a total of €243.4 million has issued to participants in respect of their participation in the Scheme in 2024. Just over 90% (48,722) of active participants have received their advance payments, and almost 84% of these have now also received a balancing payment.

The total number of active participants in ACRES, as of 26 May 2025, is 54,092, of whom 44,802 are remaining from those who commenced their ACRES contracts on 1 January 2023 (Tranche 1) and 9,290 from those who commenced their ACRES contracts on 1 January 2024 (Tranche 2).

My Department is committed to resolving the issues that have been delaying the remaining payments as soon as possible, and is making good progress in this regard. Additional resources have been deployed, and we are systematically working through the remaining issues associated with the outstanding cases.

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.

I can confirm that pay runs are taking place every seven days to pay cases that have passed all required validation checks.

My Department will continue to issue regular online updates over the coming period on the progress being made. We remain on target to have 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.