Almost 9,900 farmers have been identified by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) as receiving an "overpayment" under the Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES).

DAFM has paid out over €512 million to date to farmers participating in ACRES.

Just under €248.6 million has been issued to 44,186 tranche 1 participants in respect of their participation in the agri-environmental scheme in 2023.

While advance payments in respect of 2023 commenced in December 2023, it was decided in February 2024 that an interim payment would issue to all those tranche 1 participants who had not received their advance payment in respect of 2023 by mid-February 2024.

Interim payments totalling €119.5 million were made by the department in February and March 2024 to farmers who had not received an ACRES advance payment by mid-February 2024.

The flat rate payment, ranging from €4,000-5,000, was made by the department to address concerns that delays in ACRES advance payments were causing cash flow difficulties on farms.

The department previously said that scheme participants were advised when the interim payments were being made, that if their total annual ACRES payment was subsequently calculated to be less than the interim payment, the overpayment would have to be repaid.

A spokesperson for DAFM confirmed to Agriland that a total of 9,871 interim payment recipients have been identified, to date, as having received an overpayment.

This total includes 1,946 farmers ACRES General and 7,925 in ACRES Co-operation (CP).

The department said that the combined sum of these overpayments is €17.2 million.

The breakdown of the amount of overpayment in terms of the percentage of participants is as follows:

Less than or equal to €100: 4.95%;
€101 to €2,000: 51.70%;
€2,001 to €4,000: 34.72%;
Greater than €4,001: 8.63%

An overpayment of €100 or less is not being recouped and letters seeking repayment were not issued to those participants.

The department said that the value of repayments outstanding from the ACRES interim payments, as of June 30, 2025, is €2.1 million by 1,381 farmers.

DAFM noted that some of these farmers may have already partially repaid the overpayment.

"Farmers who have requested that their outstanding overpayments are deducted only from their next ACRES payment are being facilitated where possible.

"Participants who were notified of overpayments could contact the department if they had any queries regarding the calculation of the overpayment," the DAFM spokesperson added.