It has not been a good year for delays to a range of key farm payments. Farmers have already experienced serious delays to BISS payments and to payments under the ANC and eco-schemes. Thousands of these payments are still outstanding. Now, this trend of delay is affecting payments under the agri-environmental scheme known as ACRES. Many farmers have been told the very best they can hope for is for these payments to land from February 2024.

Farmers were actively encouraged by the Government to undertake work and incur expense under this scheme. Now, their bills are mounting up and they are being left high and dry as we approach Christmas. Does the Taoiseach agree with me that this is completely unacceptable? Will he tell the Minister, Deputy McConalogue, to step in urgently to ensure these payments are made before Christmas, as was promised? Thousands of farming families are depending on them.

The Department of agriculture, the Minister, Deputy McConalogue, and I are working hard to make sure farmers across the board are supported and will receive their payments in due course.

In the first year as part of the new Common Agricultural Policy, we have seen €1.2 billion being paid out under that to 113,000 farmers. There was big pressure on the agri-climate rural environment scheme, ACRES, with only 30,000 places where 46,000 people applied. We facilitated those 46,000 farmers who will all be able to join. That put significant pressure in the first year of the new scheme and on the all new area monitoring computer systems. There has been pressure and not all farmers have been able to receive the ACRES payment as soon as we would have liked but there will be payments made next week to a significant cohort of ACRES farmers and they are all due to be communicated with in due course. The remainder will be paid as soon as possible early into the new year.