A TD has raised concerns that the backlog in payments under the Agri Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES) may result in farm families exceeding income thresholds to avail of grants for children starting third-level education.

According to Aontú TD for Mayo Paul Lawless, farm families receiving two year's worth of ACRES payments at around the same time this year may result in them missing out on grants under SUSI (Student Universal Support Ireland).

Lawless referred to ACRES as a "bureaucratic blunder that's now snowballing into a crisis for rural families".

The TD said that the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine's failure to process payments on time means many farmers will now receive two year's worth of ACRES in a single calendar year.

"While that might sound like a windfall, it's anything but. This lump-sum payment will push some families over income thresholds for means-tested grants - particularly SUSI college grants - leaving students without vital support through no fault of their own," he said.

Lawless added: "Imagine doing everything right - protecting the environment, following the rules - and then being told your child can't get a college grant because the department couldn't get its act together."

He said that the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food has proposed to write to SUSI and request flexibility in assessing grant applications affected by this "anomaly".

However, Lawless is also calling for ACRES payments to be fully disregarded from the means test.

"Penalising families for participating in it is like taxing people for planting trees," he said.

Lawless called for a full review of the department's payment systems and for greater transparency in communications with farmers.

"We need more than apologies. We need accountability. Farmers deserve to know what went wrong, and how it's being fixed, not just vague reassurance and delayed cheques," he said.