The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) issued almost €10.8 million to farmers in scheme payments last week.

The latest data, published by the department, shows that some €8.5 million was paid out under Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES).

This means that a total of over €503 million has now been paid out to farmers under the €1.5 billion agri-environmental scheme.

The scheme has been the subject of intense criticism due to the delay in payments being issued to farmers.

DAFM recently reiterated that the “most complex” payment cases under the ACRES will be dealt with by the end of this month.

According to the latest payment figures, just over €1.6 million was paid out to farmers under the Targeted Agricultural Modernisation Schemes (TAMS) last week.

The majority of that total, €1.5 million, was issued under TAMS 3, with an additional €154,383 paid for TAMS 2 applications.

The department said that €72 million has now been paid out to date under TAMS 3 across 8,243 claims.

29,024 applications for TAMS 3 have been approved by the department, with 10,189 payment applications submitted.

The data shows that a further €235,000 was paid out to farmers under the 2024 Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS) and Complimentary Redistributive Income Support for Sustainability (CRISS).

Approximately 119,534 farmers have now received a total of €846.3 million in payments under these schemes.

The BISS/CRISS figure includes the 2024 Complementary Income Support for Young Farmers of €38.3 million and the 2024 National Reserve of €3.2 million

Last week, a further €279,005 was paid out for the 2024 Eco Scheme, bringing the total paid to almost €308 million to 118,570 farmers.

€73,572 was paid out under the Areas of Natural Constraint (ANC) and Areas of Specific Constraint (ASC).

An additional €6,000 was paid to farmers participating in the Organic Farming Scheme (OFS). 4,757 farmers have now recieved a total of €57.5 million under the scheme.

DAFM also paid out another €52,318 to farmers for the Baling Assistance Payment (BAP).