Press release
Minister McConalogue announces issue of Interim payments to ACRES participants
From Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine
Published on
Last updated on
From Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine
Published on
Last updated on
The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue, today 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 today 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.”
The Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES) is the agri-environment climate measure under Ireland’s CAP Strategic Plan for the period 2023-2027.
ACRES is jointly funded by the European Union and the National Exchequer.
There are two approaches within the Scheme:
The government has committed €1.5 billion for the Scheme over its duration, with this amount to facilitate the acceptance of a total of 50,000 farmers into ACRES.
Payments in respect of ACRES contracts are normally issued in two phases, whereby an advance payment of 85% issues at end of the relevant year, with the balance of 15% issued by the end of June of the following year.
€88.4 million has been paid in advance payments to date to 19,719 participants in the ACRES General approach.
In view of the additional time required to make ACRES advance payments to all participants, it was decided that an interim, nationally funded, payment would be made by the end of February 2024 to participants - across both the General and Co-operation approaches - who have still to receive an advance payment.
The ACRES payments to be made to Tranche 1 participants in June 2024 (in respect of their participation in the Scheme in 2023) will take into account the interim payments already made to the relevant participants.
The breakdown of the interim payments being made to ACRES Tranche 1 participants, on 28 February 2024, by county, is shown in the table below.
| Interim payments issued 28 Feb 2024 – by county | ||
| County | Number of contracts | Amount |
| Carlow | 184 | €900,000 |
| Cavan | 513 | €2,419,000 |
| Clare | 1,682 | €8,156,000 |
| Cork | 2,188 | €10,297,000 |
| Donegal | 3,463 | €16,685,000 |
| Dublin | 39 | €188,000 |
| Galway | 3,076 | €14,791,000 |
| Kerry | 2,838 | €13,862,000 |
| Kildare | 63 | €305,000 |
| Kilkenny | 117 | €497,000 |
| Laois | 164 | €768,000 |
| Leitrim | 1,447 | €7,177,000 |
| Limerick | 667 | €3,234,000 |
| Longford | 201 | €856,000 |
| Louth | 112 | €542,000 |
| Mayo | 3,335 | €16,105,000 |
| Meath | 69 | €296,000 |
| Monaghan | 181 | €842,000 |
| Offaly | 154 | €707,000 |
| Roscommon | 547 | €2,466,000 |
| Sligo | 914 | €4,433,000 |
| Tipperary | 748 | €3,475,000 |
| Waterford | 250 | €1,190,000 |
| Westmeath | 144 | €606,000 |
| Wexford | 316 | €1,398,000 |
| Wicklow | 297 | €1,422,000 |
| Total | 23,709 | €113,617,000 |