Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Martin Heydon has said that he does not foresee what he described as a "manual fix" for the payment delay issues in the Agri Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES).

Speaking at the annual general meeting (AGM) of the Agricultural Consultants Association (ACA) in Cavan today (Thursday, March 6), the minister said that the efforts underway at present to resolve the payment delays would provide permanent solutions that would prevent a reoccurrence of similar issues in future years of the scheme.

The minister rejected the approach of ad-hoc solutions used on a year-by-year basis which, he suggested, would not actually address the issues.

The minister made the comments as part of his remarks to the ACA AGM, in which he provided a general update on the current progress in getting ACRES participants paid.

At the ACA AGM, Minister Heydon acknowledges the frustration for farmers who have still not been paid under ACRES pic.twitter.com/1LmyV8x3oj— Agriland (@AgrilandIreland) March 6, 2025

The minister told the meeting: "While there is always challenges in the initial implementation of a scheme, good progress has been made, and the resolution of issues now will contribute to a more streamlined implementation from now on.

"That's an important point to make. It takes time to fix these challenges, but these fixes will last the entirety of the scheme. You could jump in quicker and maybe do a manual fix, and then have to do that manual fix every year, and have recurring problems. We don't want that," he added.

"We want these challenges to be once off and when farmers are resolved, that they don't have to face this again, [and] that on our side, administratively, it becomes much more straight forward," Minister Heydon said.

The minister's comments on a "manual fix" come after the Irish Farmers' Association (IFA) asked the minister to introduce a new interim payment under ACRES for 2025, similar to the interim payment paid for 2024.

Speaking this week, John Curran, the rural development chairperson with the IFA, said: "The interim payment was a necessary intervention this time last year. History has repeated itself and it’s needed again as a matter of priority."

The IFA has called on the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine to provide “concrete timelines and answers” on ACRES at a Farmers’ Charter meeting due to take place tomorrow (Friday, March 7).