The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine's (DAFM's) computer system for the Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES) is still being impacted by some technical issues.

Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Martin Heydon said that a technical issues in the ACRES system is delaying the processing of a "small number" of applications for non-productive investments (NPIs).

The minister was responding to a parliamentary question from fellow Fine Gael TD Colm Burke, who asked the minister about IT issues affecting NPI applicants who transferred to a registered farm partnership during the scheme and who are unable to submit a claim for their 2025 application.

Minister Heydon told Burke that the department "is aware of technical issues within the ACRES system which has resulted in processing delays for a small number of NPI applicants".

"Due to the strict validation checks that must be undertaken on all payment claims, cases where there has been some changes to the herd, such as transferring from a sole trader to registered farm partnership, have not been accepted by the system," the minister added.

He said that "less than 20" applications have been impacted by the issue.

The minister said that the required 'Change of Client' function on the system, which is already in place for the 'General' ACRES scheme, will also be rolled out for NPIs to "address this issue as soon as possible".

NPI IT issues

This is not the first time technical issues with the NPI system have arisen.

The department said in July that "ongoing development of IT functionality" was preventing payments at the time for some NPI investments.

Agriland had been contacted by one farmer who had claimed to be waiting on a substantial payment for work completed last year and was informed that IT-related issues were the reason for the delay.

The ACRES programme was beset by IT-related challenges in its earlier days, which resulted in long delays to farmer payments.

NPI deadline

In other developments on the ACRES NPIs, the deadline for the submission of 2026 NPIs has been extended by one day.

The department confirmed the decision in a circular issued to advisors this week.

The system for applying for NPIs on behalf of farmers in the ACRES Co-operation approach is currently open.

The closing date for submission of applications was due to fall yesterday (Wednesday, October 14).

The deadline has now been extended to today (Thursday, October 14).