Advance payments worth almost €147 million have begun issuing to farmers participating in the Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES), the Department of Agriculture has confirmed.

Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Martin Heydon said the payments, covering 2025, are being made this week to 33,794 farmers who joined the scheme in 2023. A further €32.7 million is due to be paid next week to 8,000 farmers who entered ACRES in 2024.

In total, the first round of 2025 advance payments will reach more than 42,000 farmers, representing about 78 per cent of all participants in the scheme. The Minister said this reflected improvements in the timeliness of payments following work carried out over the past year.

“These payments will bring the total amount paid under ACRES since its launch in 2023 to about €697 million,” Mr Heydon said. “This reflects the Government’s commitment to achieving environmental, biodiversity, water quality and climate objectives by supporting farm families on their environmental journey.

“ACRES is an ambitious scheme and there have been challenges presented by Ireland’s level of ambition. It is clear we are overcoming those challenges through the commitment of everyone involved, farmers, ACRES advisers and the Co-operation Project Teams.”

Mr Heydon urged participants to ensure their paperwork is up to date so that future payments can be processed quickly. “I want to maintain the current momentum in ACRES, and a key contributor to issuing payments is the submission of returns by participants,” he said. “I encourage anyone who has not sent in their ACRES LESS declaration for 2025 to do so as soon as possible, and I also encourage farmers undertaking the Conservation of Rare Breeds action to send in their returns by 15 November 2025.”

ACRES is Ireland’s national agri-environment climate scheme under the CAP Strategic Plan for 2023–2027. It is jointly funded by the European Union and the Exchequer and currently supports more than 53,700 farmers.

The scheme operates under two approaches: ACRES General, which is available nationally, and ACRES Co-operation, open to farmers in designated high-priority areas.