Some 1,586 farmers are awaiting payments owed to them under the Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES), Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon has announced.

The minister had vowed to ensure all farmers owed money under the scheme would be paid by the end of June, a deadline which has now passed.

“When I came into this ministerial post, 14,500 farmers from 2024 did not have their advance payments processed, with a further 2,800 from 2023 still not processed. This now stands at 1,586 for 2024, of whom 514 are awaiting their final payment for 2023.

“I always said that one farmer not paid is one too many and we are working as fast as possible to issue payments with weekly payment runs. We continue to actively and definitively address the issues causing the delays once and for all, so that they don’t happen again, and we are getting there. “I fully appreciate this is frustrating for farmers,” he said.

As regards the numbers paid in respect of participation in the scheme each year, 99% of the farmers in the scheme in 2023 have been paid for 2023, while 97% of all ACRES farmers have received their advance payment in respect of 2024.

Some 94% of all participants, 50,617 farmers, have received their balancing payments in respect of 2024, and are therefore fully paid up to date, the Department stated.

The Department of Agriculture said that the key factors affecting those who are awaiting payments include changes since the contract commenced such as transfers, change of ownership, incorrect submissions and issues with scorecards and alignment of ACRES data with 2024 BISS data.

The minister said his officials are continuing to work through the issues affecting farmer payments so that they are paid as soon as possible.