Up to 750 farmers who have still not received balancing payments under the Agri Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES) for 2023 are due to receive payments next week.

That's according to assistant secretary general at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM), Paul Savage who spoke at an Irish Farmers' Association (IFA) meeting in Athlone, Co. Westmeath last night.

The IFA organised the meeting at the Hodson Bay Hotel to discuss policy threats to farming on peat soils and it was chaired by IFA deputy president, Alice Doyle.

There was standing room only at the meeting as 250 farmers awaited information and updates from Teagasc and DAFM representatives about Good Agricultural and Environmental Conditions (GAEC) 2 and ACRES.

The 750 farmers to receive ACRES payments next week are among 2,700 who have still not receive payment for 2023 for farming in an environmentally friendly manner.

ACRES is Ireland's agri-environment climate scheme under Ireland's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) Strategic Plan.

It aims to help address biodiversity decline while delivering an income support for up to 50,000 farm families in Ireland.

Paul Savage from DAFM told the meeting that €436 million in ACRES payments has been paid up until Wednesday of this week (March 5, 2025).

He said that they expect to make payments to 10,400 farmers over the next few weeks, 2,700 of whom are still awaiting their 2023 balancing payment.

He explained that previous interim payments of between €4,000 and €5,000 were made to those farmers to tide them over as a result of a delay in the balancing payments.

Savage said that "the vast majority" of farmers in ACRES would be paid by May and that they expect to have all outstanding payments resolved by June.

He explained that some issues which resulted in delays included missing scorecards and ACRES information not being consistent with Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS) information in some instances, which he admitted was probably a department problem, rather than on the farmers' part.

He added that there could have been contract issues in terms of change of ownership "which have proven difficult" in terms of probate and the process around that.

Needless to say, patience was running thin among the farming audience at the meeting when it came to delayed ACRES payments with heated exchanges by farmers.

One farmer told the meeting that "it's an absolute disgrace and it's an embarrassment for the new [agriculture] minister that farmers in ACRES have not been paid".

IFA South Leinster chair, Paul O'Brien told the DAFM officials that an immediate interim payment needs to be made to farmers still awaiting ACRES balancing payments from 2023.

"I would suggest that the minimum that should be done now to keep farmers engaged in environmentally friendly farming, is an interim payment," O'Brien said.

In her address Alice Doyle likened ACRES to the "titanic". She said it has caused "indescribable frustration and hardship for farmers who find themselves with severe cashflow problems AND are are reduced to a state of almost begging for what they are entitled to".

Farmers in the audience questioned the civil servants representing the DAFM about how they would feel if they had to wait two years for their salary to be paid.

Savage said: "Progress is being made and I know there is frustration around the delays that have been suffered as part of the payments process, we are working through those."

The DAFM representative stressed that the department had made changes to address the backlog and brought in more staff to help speed up the payments process.

He added that even in previous schemes such as Green Low-Carbon Agri-Environment Scheme (GLAS) or Rural Environment Protection Scheme (REPS), there were delays to payments for individual reasons.