The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) has confirmed today, April 30, that it has paid out just over €452 million to Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES) participants.

According to DAFM, €204 million has been paid out to participants from 2024, while €248.1 million has been paid out to 2023 participants.

DAFM has said that advance payments were made to 930 participants from 2024 on April 25, 2025, with those payments amounting to €3,688,406.82.

This pay run brought the total of 2024 advance payments to €204 million paid to 47,477 farmers in respect of their participation in ACRES in 2024. This represents just under 88% of all ACRES participants.

Of the 47,477 farmers who received their 2024 advanced payments, 39,225 are Tranche 1 participants, and 8,252 are Tranche 2 participants.

According to DAFM, advanced payments still have to be made to 6,700 participants from 2024 across tranches 1 and 2.

1,492 farmers are awaiting their balancing payment for 2023 and 2024. The 2023 payment must be paid before the 2024 advanced payment may be made.

Advance payments in respect of 2024 will continue to be made weekly to ensure timely payments to the remaining participants once their contracts are cleared for payment.

On April 25, 2025, DAFM made 355 balancing payments to farmers who participated in the scheme in 2023.

This brought the total paid in respect of participation in ACRES in 2023 to €248.1 million or just under 97% of all ACRES participants.

Since re-commencing payments in January 2025, €1,023,000 has been paid in balancing payments to 1,292 participants.

A total of 1,492 farmers have yet to receive their final payments for 2023. Of these, 1,198 have already received an interim payment of either €4,000 or €5,000, respectively. In many instances, these will cover the entire amount of the payment due.

DAFM said it is continuing to progress the contracts awaiting final payment in respect of 2023 and/or advance payment in respect of 2024, with the target of having as many as possible cleared by May 2025, with the most complex cases to be finalised in June 2025 at the latest.

Balancing payments in respect of participation in ACRES in 2024 are scheduled to commence in the second half of May 2025.

In relation to the Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS) payments, a department spokesperson told Agriland that there is a small number of cases where information in respect of ACRES is not displaying accurately on the BISS application system.

The spokesperson said: "If an applicant or their advisor is submitting a BISS application and the information being presented is not reflective of their ACRES contract, they use the BISS application system to add a manual note explaining any inaccuracies.

"These notes are then examined by department staff and corrections applied where appropriate," the spokesperson added.