Budget 2025 has seen an increase of €20.5 million in funding to control TB, bovine viral diarrhea (BVD) and infectious bovine rhinotracheitis (IBR).
The Budget 2025 Expenditure Report provides a breakdown of allocations to each government department for next year, as well as a breakdown of allocation to various programmes within each department.
Within the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Budget 2025 allocated a combined €20.5 million for TB, BVD, IBR, and Targeted Advisory Service on Animal Health (TASAH), which is delivered by trained veterinary professionals.
The report said that this funding allocation is additional for 2025, over and above what was allocated for 2024.
Under the department’s Programme A – Food Safety, Animal and Plant Health, and Animal Welfare – just over €418 million has been allocated for 2025.
This is an increase of 10% on the €378.5 million allocation for 2024.
Of the €30 million-odd boost in funding for this programme, €10.5 million has been allocated specifically for “evidence-based targeted bovine TB testing”.
A further €10 million has been allocated to fund TASAH, and BVD and IBR measures.
The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine runs four programmes, as follows:
- Programme A – Food Safety, Animal and Plant Health, and Animal Welfare;
- Programme B – Farm/Sector Supports and Controls;
- Programme C – Policy and Strategy;
- Programme D – Seafood Sector.
Programme B – which includes all the main farm schemes and payments – has been allocated €1.09 billion for 2025, an 11% increase on the 2024 figure of €979 million.
Programme C – which includes promotional initiatives for Irish food; research and development; and farm safety and farmer wellbeing – has been allocated around €426 million for 2025, a virtually unchanged figure from 2024.
The allocation for the seafood sector in 2025 increased by 4% to around €177 million.
Across these four programmes – and after deductions for appropriations in aid – the department has been allocated around €1.66 billion. The equivalent figure for 2024 was 1.52 billion.
The remainder the department’s roughly €2 billion allocation for 2025 is made up of the administration expenditure of €405 million.
The administration expenditure includes salaries; travel expenses; training; operational expenses; digital investment; premises expenses; consultations; and laboratory services.