Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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85. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will consider introducing an incentive scheme to encourage farmers who have particularly old and potentially dangerous tractors and machinery in their farm yards to upgrade to newer and safer options; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36295/25]

Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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The Targeted Agricultural Modernisation Scheme (TAMS 3) provides grants to farmers to build and/or improve a specified range of farm buildings and equipment on their holdings. Overall, the scheme has proved very popular, with an unprecedented level of applications received.

The Farm Safety Capital Investment Scheme is a measure in TAMS 3, which provides an incentive to farmers to avail of investments to improve their own safety and that of their farm. This scheme includes a number of investment items such as livestock pens and animal handling equipment, all of which contribute to improved safety on the farm. However, due to budgetary constraints, it is not possible to extend the scheme to include support for tractors.

TAMS 3 also provides support for a range of new machinery in the Low Emissions Slurry Spreading (LESS) Scheme, while machinery including cultivators, sprayers and fertiliser spreaders are available under other TAMS 3 schemes

Farm safety is of paramount importance. I would urge farmers to ensure their machines are at all times in a safe operating condition.

Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein)
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87. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of farmers waiting on outstanding ACRES payments, including the numbers in Roscommon and Galway; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36047/25]

Aindrias Moynihan (Cork North-West, Fianna Fail)
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88. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the up-to-date position on payments issuing in respect of farmers' participation in ACRES in 2023 and 2024; the number of payments still outstanding for both of these years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36629/25]

Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 87 and 88 together.

The Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme or 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. There are currently just under 54,000 participants in ACRES.

Payments in respect of ACRES continue to issue on a weekly basis as cases pass all required validation checks. A total of €512.2 million has now issued since ACRES payments commenced at the end of 2023.

In the case of the 2023 scheme year, almost 99% of participants have been paid in full.

As regards 2024, 97% of participants have received their advance payments, and almost 94% of participants have now received a balancing payment.

A total of 514 farmers have yet to receive their final payments for 2023. Of these, 236 have already received an interim payment of either €4,000 or €5,000, respectively.

Advance payments in respect of scheme participation in 2024 have still to be made to 1,586 ACRES participants across Tranches 1 and 2.

These 1,586 participants include those awaiting their balancing payment in respect of 2023, as that must be paid before the 2024 Advance payment may be made to them.

For county Roscommon 2,910 participants have been paid up to date while 129 are awaiting payments. Full payment has issued to 6,251 county Galway participants meaning payments are still due for the remaining 468 participants.

My Department is committed to resolving the issues that have been delaying the remaining payments as soon as possible. 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 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 as soon as possible.

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