Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 25 March 2025
626. Deputy Louis O'Hara asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the efforts being made to address delays in ACRES payments; the number of payments still outstanding; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13989/25]
Amharc ar fhreagraMore than €440 million has been paid to ACRES participants to date. A total of €247.4 million has been paid to 42,631 participants (25,537 General and 17,094 Co-operation), or 95% of all ACRES participants, in respect of their participation in the Scheme in 2023. A further 2,302 farmers have yet to receive their final payments for 2023. Of these, 2,008 have already received an interim payment of either €4,000 or €5,000, respectively. In many instances, this will cover the entire payment due.
I can confirm that advance payments totalling €193.5 million have now been paid to 44,939 farmers in respect of their participation in ACRES in 2024. This number represents 83% of all ACRES participants. Advance payments in respect of scheme participation in 2024 have still to be made to 9,316 ACRES participants across the two tranches.
Certain issues such as transfers of contracts, late or non-submission of scorecards, and alignment of ACRES information with data held by the Department on other IT systems, have contributed to the delay in the making of those payments.
My Department is actively resolving the remaining issues through, for example, the development of the required IT functionality, the re-allocation of resources and the investigation of issues associated with specific contracts. In some cases, action is required by the participant to progress the payment claim.
Pay runs are taking place every 10 days in order to ensure that these payments are issued in a timely manner as cases pass the required validations.
My Department will be issuing regular online updates over the coming period on the progress being made, with the expectation of having the payments in respect of farmers’ participation in ACRES in 2023 and 2024 made by the end of June.
I can assure you that everything is being done to pay, as soon as possible, all ACRES participants who clear pre-payment checks.
