171 farmers currently have outstanding "overpayments" under the Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES), Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Martin Heydon has confirmed.

The minister was responding to a recent parliamentary question from Fianna Fáil Deputy John Connolly.

The Galway West TD asked how many ACRES farmers was the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) seeking repayments from.

Minister Heydon replied that 97 ACRES General participants and 74 ACRES Co-operation (CP) farmers have "overpayments outstanding".

In February 2024, an interim payment was issued to tranche 1 farmers who had not yet received their advance payment under the agri-environmental scheme in respect of 2023.

General participants received an interim payment of €4,000 and CP participants received an interim payment of €5,000.

"My department wrote to all participants receiving an interim payment at the end of February 2024 to advise that the final ACRES Year 1 payments would be based on the ACRES actions approved in their contract and, where results-based actions are included, the scores assigned by their advisor.

"It was also advised that, if the ACRES payment calculation amounted to less than the interim payment, the difference/shortfall would be shown on the participant's department account as a debt, which would be offset against future payments," Minister Heydon said.

DAFM issued letters outlining the options available to each participant who had received an "overpayment".

"It has offered a flexible approach in the collection of these overpayments, and has encouraged any farmer not in a position to make the full refund, or to have it recovered from the next DAFM payment, to engage with my department in relation to alternative payment arrangements.

"These include the possibility to recover the outstanding amount from the next ACRES payment," Minster Heydon said.

Last month, the DAFM confirmed to Agriland that over 9,000 ACRES farmers would have to make repayments.

A total of 9,116 interim payment recipients, 1,747 ACRES General and 7,369 ACRES Co-operation (CP), have been identified by mid-February as having received an overpayment.

DAFM said that the combined sum of these overpayments was €15.8 million.

Just over half of the scheme participants were deemed to have an overpayment of between €101 to €2,000, while one third owed between €2,001 to €4,000.

Meanwhile, the department has said that it is continuing to progress ACRES contracts awaiting final payment in respect of 2023 and/or advance payment in respect of 2024.

DAFM said that the target is having as many as possible cleared by May 2025, with the most complex cases to be finalised in June 2025 at the latest.

Balancing payments in respect of participation in ACRES in 2024 are scheduled to commence in the second half of May 2025.