Up to €34m in 2024 ACRES payments have still to be issued to farmers, the Irish Farmers Journal has estimated. Overall, close to €27.5m is estimated to be owed to 5,315 farmers – as of May 27 – in advance ACRES payments for 2024.

This figure includes almost €17.7m in advance payments still to be made to ACRES general farmers, as well as a further €9.8m to those in the ACRES co-operation stream.

Balancing payments owed for 2024 to almost 9,000 farmers – which are generally worth around 15% of the overall amount or almost €750 on average – is set to add a further €6.5m to the final total.

Figures released last week by the Department of Agriculture gave the number of farmers in each county that are awaiting ACRES payments.

But the Department said it was not possible to calculate the value of contracts not yet paid as this would “only become known as the claims in question were finally processed”. However, the Irish Farmers Journal has based its estimates of the monies outstanding on the payments made to over 36,000 ACRES applicants up to September last year.

This data puts the average payment for ACRES general farmers in 2024 at €5,200, with the average for ACRES co-operation being €5,100.

These averages and the Department’s figures on the numbers of farmers awaiting payments have been combined to estimate how much is owed nationally and on a county-by-county basis.

In terms of the amount owed in ACRES payments on a county-by-county basis, Galway tops the bill at an estimated €3.4m, with Cork next at €3.33m and Wexford in third position on €3.26m.

In addition, farmers in Mayo and Kerry have sizeable outstanding ACRES payments in the pipeline. Close to €2.4m is estimated to be owed to Mayo farmers and €2.1m in Kerry.

As a county, Wexford at €3.2m is owed most in terms of ACRES general. Cork (€2.37m) and Galway (€1.26m) are the next highest.

For ACRES co-operation, the counties with the highest estimated outstanding payments include Galway (€2.1m), Mayo (€1.64m) and Kerry (€1.6m).

Other counties with sizeable payment shortfalls for ACRES co-operation are Donegal (€1.0m), Cork (€963,900), Clare (€612,000) and Leitrim (€357,000).