Payments to farmers under the 2024 Eco Scheme have now surpassed €300 million, according to the latest update on payments under various farm schemes.

The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine regularly provides updates on the amount of money paid out under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and the schemes under it.

For the Eco Scheme, which forms part of Pillar I (direct payments) of CAP, the figure paid out for the 2024 scheme year is now €301.58 million, as of yesterday (Friday, February 7).

That money has been paid out to 116,664 farmers, with just under €4.12 million being paid in the last seven days.

Staying on Pillar I, just over €505,000 was paid out to farmers in the last week under the 2024 Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS).

That brings total payments under BISS to €833.8 million to 118,530 farmers.

The BISS figures includes: the 2024 Complementary Redistributive Income Support for Sustainability (CRISS), commonly referred to as 'front loaded' payments; the Complementary Income Support for Young Farmers (CISYF); and the 2024 National Reserve.

The 2024 CISYF has seen €34.1 million paid out to date.

Moving on to Pillar II, and around €1.93 million was paid in the last seven days under the Targeted Agricultural Modernisation Scheme (TAMS) under the current CAP.

In total under the current TAMS scheme, 22,856 approvals for farm investments have been issued to participating farmers, with 6,512 applications for payment being submitted and 4,831 individual payments being made.

The total amount paid out under the current TAMS programme (since 2023 inclusive) is €42.88 million.

The last seven days also saw some outstanding payments made under the previous TAMS programme (2014-2020 plus the 2021-2022 transitional period). Those payments came to €131,967.

Under the 2024 Areas of Natural Constraint (ANC) Scheme, €521,490 was paid out in the last seven days, brining total payments for 2024 to €246.5 million to 98,298 farmers.

Although the weekly update figures do not include any payments for the Agri Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES), there are figures for outstanding payments under its predecessor, the Green, Low-carbon, Agri-Environment Scheme (GLAS), with €15,000 being paid in the last week.

No payments were made in the last week under the cattle schemes, namely the National Dairy Beef Welfare Scheme; the Beef Welfare Scheme; and the Suckler Carbon Efficiency Programme (SCEP).

There were also no payments made in the last week under either of the sheep schemes, namely the 2024 National Sheep Welfare Scheme and the 2024 Sheep Improvement Scheme.

Below is a summary of payments under notable schemes (where payments have been made in the last seven days):

Organic Faming Scheme (OFS) 2024:
Straw Incorporation Measure (SIM):
Red Clover Scheme 2024:
Shannon Callows Flood Scheme: