Some 7,660 farmers have yet to be paid for actions carried out under the Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES )in 2024, according to the latest update from the Department of Agriculture.

Of these 7,660 farmers, 1,850 are also waiting on their payment for 2023, as that must be paid before the 2024 advance payment can be made to them.

In the last payment run, 2024 advance payments were issued to 845 farmers on Monday 14 April, with 763 famers paid on Monday 7 April, the Department update shows.

This payment run brought the total of 2024 advance payments to €200.4m paid to 46,547 farmers.

However, this number of recipients represents just 86% of all ACRES farmers.

Payment runs

Of the above 46,547 farmers who have received their 2024 advance payments, a total of 38,394 are tranche one farmers and 8,153 are tranche two farmers.

The Department of Agriculture has said that advance payments for 2024 will continue to be made every 10 days to the remaining participants once their contracts are cleared for payment.

Meanwhile, payments will be made every three weeks to those waiting on a payment for 2023.