John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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1752. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he agrees that administrative complexity and payment delays have dogged the farm environment scheme (details supplied); if he will make an interim payment from national funds to mitigate payment delays impacting farmers; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45661/25]

Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy may be aware, significant progress has been made since the figures quoted above. At this point in time over 99% of participants have had their 2023 payments finalised. Over 98% of participants have now received their 2024 advance payment which is worth 85% of the total payment for 2024. Finally almost 97% have also received the remainder of their 2024 payments which issue in the balancing payments. Of the approximately 54,000 participants of the scheme, 967 are currently due payments.

The issuing of payments are now in line with the timing of payments in the previous environmental scheme the Green Low-Carbon Agri-Environment Scheme or "GLAS".

In addition to payments, progress has also been made in other aspects of the scheme. The third application window for Non-Productive Investments (NPIs) is currently open, along with the claims process for any NPIs approved in the initial two tranches. The first application window for Landscape Actions has also opened.

There are no plans to make any further interim payments. Allocating resources to interim payments would cause further delays so instead the focus will remain on continuing to issue payments on a weekly basis. Payments in respect of the 2025 scheme year are scheduled to commence in Q4 of 2025.