A TD for Galway East has said that the issue of payment delays under the Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES) "remains deeply unfair" for farmers who have met all their obligations, despite the recent progress.

Fianna Fáil TD Albert Dolan said that he welcomed the progress being made, with the department processing some 1,000 payments per week and the backlog expected to be cleared in around nine weeks.

However, he said that it is "completely unacceptable" that farmers who have met all requirements under the scheme may have to wait a further nine weeks to receive payments that are owed to them.

"It would be unthinkable in any other sector for payments to be delayed on this scale without consequences," Dolan said.

He added: "If any other industry wasn't paid on time, there would be uproar. But farmers are expected to just accept it. That's not right, and it's not sustainable."

Dolan claimed that farmers in east Co. Galway are contacting his constituency office "in frustration", after following all the rules under ACRES but are sill being "left in the dark" as to when payment will arrive.

"These are people who took part in the scheme in good faith. They did what was asked of them to support our environmental goals. The least they deserve is to be paid on time and to be communicated with clearly and respectfully," the TD said.

Dolan confirmed he would raise the matter with Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Martin Heydon.

He said he intends to call on the minister to provide "immediate clarity and support" for those still waiting on payments.

He said he also will call for a commitment that this level of delay and uncertainty will never happen again in future Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) schemes.

As of Wednesday of last week (March 26), a total of 4,619 farmers were awaiting the finalisation of payments under ACRES for the Co-operation Project (CP) stream in respect of the 2024 and 2023 scheme years.

Minister Heydon previously said that it is his department’s “overarching objective” to make all outstanding payments for 2023 and 2024 under ACRES by the end of June.

According to the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, there are a number of reasons impacting the timeline of payments.

These include instances where farmers have applied to transfer their contracts; issues in relation to the submission of scorecards for the results-based payment; and the completion of outstanding IT functionality.