The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine has set a new deadline this month for participants in the Agri Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES) to declare for the Low Emission Slurry Spreading (LESS) action for 2024.

The department initially informed advisors on October 16 last that the online facility to make the declaration for the LESS action for 2024 was open.

Farmers or their advisors were told that this declaration had to be made by December 31.

In a circular to advisors late last month, the department said that failure to make that submission by that date has resulted in a delay in making the 2024 ACRES advance payment to the relevant participants.

The department has now said that the "current position" is that a large number of ACRES LESS returns are still outstanding.

The department said that the final date for submissions of LESS declarations has been extended to March 14, "in order to give the ACRES participants concerned a further, and final, opportunity to submit their return in respect of 2024".

Failure to return the LESS declaration by that date will result in the rejection of the LESS action from those participants' ACRES contracts.

The department said a reminder is being sent by SMS to the ACRES participants concerned advising them of the new deadline.

Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Martin Heydon has said that it is his department’s “overarching objective” to make all outstanding payments for 2023 and 2024 under the Agri Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES) by the end of June.

Speaking in response to a parliamentary question from Sinn Féin Waterford TD Conor McGuinness, Minister Heydon said the department will be issuing regular online updates over the coming period on the progress being made on payments.

He said that there are a number of reasons impacting the timeline of payments, including 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.

According to the minister, the ongoing payment runs, which are taking place on a fortnightly basis for all cases that have passed the required validation checks, “are evidence that this work is being prioritised, and that issues are being resolved as quickly as possible”.