Mattie McGrath presses minister over delayed Acres payments

I want to ask you for a full explanation about ongoing delays on Acres payments. Farmer signed up to these schemes, and where there are delays and fully compliant cases, just inability to pay, so I want answers as to what are you doing about this and what is the reason for the delays, merely that you don't have the funding to pay them. It is totally unacceptable, so I am expecting a good response from you. Deputy, I hope you will always expect a good answer, and not just expect a good answer to one question. Thanks very much for raising the Acres scheme, which is really, really important and has its challenges for some farmers. It is important to say that the Agri-Climate Rural Environmental Scheme, or Acres, is a flagship environmental scheme provided under the 2023-27 CAP strategic plan. With €1.5 billion in Exchequer and EU funding allocated over the course of the scheme, there are currently just under 54,000 participants in Acres. Payments in respect of Acres continue to issue on a weekly basis, as cases pass all required validation checks. A total of €512.2 million has now issued since Acres payments commenced at the end of 2023. That is over €0.5 billion in a couple of years directly into farmers to support them in the measures they are taking. In the case of the 2023 scheme year, almost 99% of participants have been paid in full. As regards 2024, 97% of participants have received their advance payments, and almost 94% of participants have now received a balancing payment. My department is committed to resolving the issues that have been delaying the remaining payments as soon as possible. Additional resources have been deployed, and we are systematically working through the remaining issues associated with outstanding cases. These issues can range from internal departmental matters, such as the processing of changes of ownership and the finalisation of payment calculation processes, to external applicant or advisor related matters, such as submission of documentation. While we are working through those internal issues, I would like to take this opportunity to remind farmers who do have further information to submit to do so as soon as possible. My department will continue to issue regular online updates over the coming period and the progress being made. I am not happy about the farmers who did not get paid on time when they were expected to be. It was a top priority for me when I came in at the end of January to address this issue. I will not rest until every last farmer is resolved and sorted. But we have made very significant progress in recent months to get that number down to very low levels now. But again, it is a top priority for me and my officials that we continue to work until they are all resolved. Minister, you hold it a flagship, I am wondering. This is a matter of deep concern to farmers across the country. The ongoing delays are completely unacceptable and it is just not fair. Farmers who entered the scheme did so in good faith. I do not understand that they would be paid in a timely manner. Yet, here we are halfway into the year of 25 and thousands of farmers are still waiting. Your figures, I must be the only ones in the country meeting all the people unpaid, both in the county of Waterford, Tipperary and other places. Farmers are waiting even for partial payments. Many have received nothing at all. This is not a technical condition, Minister. It is a matter of minor inconvenience. It is a serious cash flow crisis for farmers who have bills to pay, who have contractors engaged in good faith and they are expected to get the money when they have been compliant. Many of these delays are from errors on the department side. One example was a constituent, who was due to have his 2024 payment, received a partial payment in November 24, was thought it was due to the department error and would be paid with a corrective payment in 2025. Now in July, he received a payment of just €300 when he was due €5,000. Sure, a dodgy cashier man would do better than this, Minister. And he did come out, Minister, and say recently that due to staffing issues you could not pay the payments. That would not be acceptable in any department or anybody else. It is not good enough. Minister. Sorry, I didn't say that. Don't attribute comments to me about staffing issues or whatever. I have been very clear here. We have had a very significant challenge in processing and working through all of these issues and some farmers weren't paid on time. When I came into this job in 2030 January, 14,500 farmers who were due to be paid had not been paid because of challenges we had in processing their applications. That was not acceptable to me. It is still not acceptable to me that there is a couple of percent of farmers left unpaid. But the progress we have made from 14,500 farmers unpaid when I came into this job less than six months ago to now that down to 1,586 farmers of whom 514 within that number are from 23. So they are counted twice on that measure. It is significant progress. We made very significant changes to our structures in Johnstone Castle. We brought about a number of changes in how we process these. I put extra resources in there from a department perspective to get those farmers paid. And with the promise that these challenges would not recur and not be recurring. The resolutions we found to these problems took time because we did them in a systematic way, dealing with the cohorts by group by group, designing the IT functionality around that so that this wouldn't be a problem that would recur every year and that we can restore confidence in this really exceptional scheme that has put over half a billion euro into farmers' pockets. Minister, I accept your bona fides. You are a farmer. I am a businessman. No one could operate in this manner. Payments since 2023 waiting. Every excuse in the world. A man expecting to get 5,000 of a corrective payment gets 300 euro. No, as I said, dodgy salesman, a man of affairs that spit in the hand would do better than that. This is shocking in this day and age. And I accept your bona fides. But I want to know now how many farmers are still waiting under each stream of the ACR scheme. How many farmers are suffering through department errors. This is not acceptable, Minister. And what kind of steps should the department be taking? You said you made efforts here. But what kind of a litagic or inept mindset got into the department? I have respected department officials for decades and met them and dealt with them. This is just not good enough. In this stage that you have to blame IT or blame anything you like. Farmers into these schemes in good faith. And where they are compliant and honouring the scheme, they must be paid. They have contractors to pay. They have feed people to pay. They have families to raise. Kids to put into education. No other sector would put up with this. And each issue a statement there some months ago, I heard it myself, that the layman's again a renewed deadline was going to be failed to be met due to lack of staff. If the department official were told, you made that statement about any department, they won't get paid next Wednesday or Thursday. That wouldn't last for long. So the farmers need fair play here. Fair play is fine play with me. And it's not happening with the farmers of Ireland. So, Deputy, I do believe we've had progress. And as I can't be any clearer, I won't rest until every last farmer. is paid. And I will continue to push my officials and push the system as hard as possible to work through those last issues. But those last issues are always the most difficult. So to be at 99%, 97% and 94% of payments through the different cohorts is significant progress. And the commitment that these problems will not be recurring on this scale, that element again. We've asked for specific breakdowns, so let's make it specific about Tipperary then. Of the 2023 applicants, 1,559 in Tipperary are fully paid, with only 14 still with challenges that we're working through. So 14 and then 15,59 paid. In 2024, 1,842 received advance payments for 2024 and 1,797 received the balance payments on that as well. With 63 of the advance not paid and 113 of the balance not paid. So that still is farmers that have to be sorted and they're my focus. I continue to do that while making sure we can restore confidence in this sector. But the vast majority of your farmers in Tipperary and in other parts of the country have got those problems resolved and are finding great benefits and are delivering great benefits through the Acres Environment Scheme that has delivered over half a billion euro into our economy and into farmers' pockets over the last couple of years. Now to other questions.