There are 619 ACRES contracts failing to clear pre-payment validations, Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon has confirmed.

These failures are due to scorecard-related issues and as a result farmers have not been paid.

This is just a small percentage however of the 15,500 farmers who have yet to be paid under the scheme.

A total of 13,051 farmers are waiting on ACRES payments for 2024, while a further 2,764 have not been paid balancing payments for 2023.

This represents almost 30% of the 55,000 farmers who have joined the environmental scheme.

The Minister said that each case must clear all validations before payment can issue.

"These validations will continue to be carried out, and my Department is working to resolve these issues so as to expedite payments. Further pay runs, to participants in both tranches, will continue to issue on a regular basis as cases pass all required validation checks.

"Everything is being done to pay, as soon as possible, all ACRES participants who clear pre-payment checks," he said.

Speaking at the Irish Cattle and Sheep Association (ICSA) AGM last week, the Minister said his priority is to get as many cases sorted in the next payment run and get to "the bottom" of the issues.

Payment runs are taking place every two weeks.