Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 20 March 2024
1002. Deputy Michael Healy-Rae asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the reason farmers who are not participating in ACRES are receiving interim ACRES payments of €5,000 in their bank accounts; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12232/24]
Amharc ar fhreagraACRES General payments commenced on December 15th 2023, and approximately 19,719 farmers have been paid a total of €88.356 million to date.
Due to the additional complexity associated with payments to Co-operation Project (CP) participants, it was agreed to make an interim payment to all the remaining applicants who had not received an ACRES payment. The first interim payment run of €4,000 for ACRES General participants and €5,000 for ACRES CP participants was paid on the February 28th 2024, and came to a total of €113,617,000. A second run totalling €5,923,000 was processed last week and is arriving in bank accounts this week.
Including the payments processed last week, 44,780 participants will have received ACRES payments totalling €207.8 million.
The Department is aware of a small number of cases that were issued a payment in error due to an administrative error. This has now been rectified.
My Department is continuing its work to expedite ACRES payments for issue in June.
