Emmett Corcoran
A total of 64 Roscommon participants in the Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES) are still awaiting payments, new figures from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine show.
The county accounts for 4.4 per cent of the 1,446 outstanding ACRES cases nationally, according to figures provided by Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon in a written Dáil reply on July 28th.
Of the Roscommon total, four cases relate to 2024 and 60 to 2025. No outstanding Roscommon case was listed for 2023.
The figures show that almost 94 per cent of the county’s outstanding payments relate to 2025. Roscommon’s 60 cases for that year represent 4.7 per cent of the 1,290 outstanding nationally for 2025.
Neighbouring Leitrim had a similar total, with 63 participants awaiting payment, while Longford had 26 and Westmeath had five. Galway recorded 192 outstanding cases, exactly three times the Roscommon figure.
Nationally, one case remains outstanding from 2023, 155 from 2024 and 1,290 from 2025.
Minister Heydon said some payments have not been issued because legal matters following the death of a contract holder have yet to be finalised, while “delays in other cases may be due to non-receipt of documentation that is required for the calculation of the payment”.
“Currently there are 1,446 scheme participants awaiting payment. It is not possible to provide a value for outstanding payments as the value of a payment is only confirmed as it is issued,” he said.
The Minister added: “I can assure the Deputy that every effort is being made to process valid applications and clear payments to eligible participants as efficiently as possible.”
However, no specific date was provided for clearing all remaining payments.
The Department said more than 99 per cent of ACRES participants have been fully paid in respect of 2023 and 2024, while more than 97 per cent are fully paid up to date for 2025.
ACRES is the State’s flagship agri-environment scheme under Ireland’s CAP Strategic Plan 2023-2027, with €1.5bn in Exchequer and European Union funding committed over the period.
The figures were provided in response to a parliamentary question from Cork North-West Fianna Fáil TD Aindrias Moynihan.
