Albert Dolan (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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733. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine when the delay in issuing the 2024 ACRES payment to a person (details supplied) will be resolved; when they can expect their payment; the reason the application for NPI has not been accepted; and the reason for the eight-month delay in payment. [65926/25]

Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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The persons named submitted an application under the ACRES Co-operation stream and were approved into Tranche 1 of the scheme, with a commencement date of 1st January 2023. All ACRES payments in respect of 2023 scheme year have been finalised for this case.

With regards to the 2024 payment, I understand that a request was submitted to my Department for the transfer of this ACRES contract to a partnership. While the transfer application impacted the timely payment of the 2024 claim, I can confirm that the claim is in the final stages of processing, with payment due shortly. Once the 2024 payment is finalised, this application will progress to validation checks for 2025.

With regards to Non-Productive Investments (NPIs) applications, I can confirm that the person named submitted a payment claim for their 2023 Annual Works Plan (AWP) on 19th November. This claim is currently being processed for payment. As is the case with all Department payments, applications must clear the required validations before payment can issue.

I have made further enquiries in relation to the 2025 Non-Productive Investments (NPIs) application and it is my understanding that my Department has been in direct contact with the person named. It was not possible to accept the application by the NPI deadline date due to the nature and time impact of the herd to partnership transfer. There is, however, flexibility in the ACRES NPI financing structure which ensures that the full NPI budget remains available to the contract owner over the lifetime of the ACRES contract.