The Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers’ Association (ICSA) has welcomed extra funding for sheep farmers in Budget 2024, but said that agriculture has “fared badly overall”.
Under Budget 2024, there will be an additional payment for sheep farmers which, together with the current sheep welfare scheme payments, will result in a payment equivalent to €20/ewe next year.
Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue said that “this will be the highest payment ever provided to our vitally important sheep sector”.
ICSA
ICSA president Dermot Kelleher said that it is positive that €15 million in new funding for the sheep sector has been included in the budget.
“Over the last 12 months ICSA has left Minister McConalogue in no doubt that a payment of €12/ewe under the Sheep Improvement Scheme (SIS) was an insult,” he said.
“While the increase is welcome it does not go far enough and ICSA will continue to campaign for higher payments for sheep farmers. Sheep farmers have been overlooked for too long.”
Further details are awaited on a beef scheme from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) and how a €200 payment/suckler cow can be achieved.
However, Kelleher believes that neither payment “will amount to more than doing the bare minimum possible”.
“Budget 2024 provided an opportunity for the government to address the imbalance in farm incomes across the sectors.
“Our suckler, beef and sheep farmers are the lowest income earners per hectare by far. This budget however will do little to address that imbalance,” he said.
“ICSA is concerned that the government seems to have abandoned the prospect of using the Brexit Adjustment Reserve (BAR) or getting an extension to it as it is not included in department estimates for 2024, but we believe it is still not too late to negotiate an extension with the EU Commission,” Kelleher said.
The ICSA president also welcomed “some positives” which were included in Budget 2024 such as the liability for landowners impacted by the Residential Zoned Land Tax (RZLT) being extended by one year, along with the extension of key farming supports including consanguinity relief.
Kelleher added that he is looking forward to engaging with the DAFM on the changes to the Targeted Agriculture Modernisation Scheme (TAMS 3) ceilings to allow for more slurry storage.