Minister announces issue of interim payments to ACRES participants

The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue, T.D, last Thursday (February 28) announced the issue of an interim payment to participants in Tranche 1 of the Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES) who have not yet received their advance payments for participation in the Scheme.

Making the announcement, the Minister said: “I am happy to confirm that those ACRES participants who have not received an advance payment under the Scheme will receive an interim payment into their bank accounts in the coming days.

“While this interim payment is being issued by my Department today, Wednesday, 28 February 2024, the receipt of same in farmers’ accounts will depend on the clearance process in the various financial institutions.”

The Minister continued: “As I have indicated previously, the amounts being paid are €4,000 to those in the ACRES General approach and €5,000 to participants in the ACRES Co-operation Project approach.

“The overall amount being paid, in this first pay run, is €113.617 million to 23,709 ACRES participants. I am pleased to honour my commitment that these payments will be issued by the end of this month.

“There are, however, a small number of applications requiring further processing, and the interim payment in respect of this cohort will issue in about ten days’ time.”

As regards the timing of ACRES payments, Minister McConalogue added: “My Department is continuing to process ACRES Tranche 1 contracts with the intention of making payments to all eligible participants in June 2024.

“A letter is being issued this week to all those ACRES participants who are getting the interim payment to let them know that the ACRES payment will take into account the amount already paid to them in the interim payment. It will also outline the process if the ACRES payment is calculated to be less than the amount of the interim payment.”

Concluding, the Minister advised: “The combination of the numbers involved, the complexity of the payment calculations and this being the first year of the ACRES Scheme has meant that the processing of advance payments is taking longer than envisaged.

“Notwithstanding these factors, my Department has already issued advance payments to the value of €88.4 million to 19,719 participants, and continues to work to ensure that the processing of ACRES payments is a priority, with the focus now very much on issuing payments in June 2024.”