The Irish Farmers' Association (IFA) has said that the farming measures in Budget 2026 announced today (Tuesday, October 7) are "underwhelming" in the context of the increasing cost of doing business in Ireland.

On the allocation for the tillage sector, IFA president Francie Gorman pointed out that the €50 million must be viewed in the context that €20 million of this is for ongoing schemes with €30 million for a Tillage Support Scheme similar to last year, the details of which are yet to be decided.

“The tillage sector is going through a major crisis. The announcement today will go some way towards providing support to growers, but it will not be near enough to alleviate the serious crisis in the sector,” Gorman said. 

The IFA president said the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Martin Heydon confirmed to him that there would be no reductions in the beef and sheep schemes.

“Concerns of cuts to these schemes have been alleviated but farmers will be very disappointed that they have not been increased in line with pre-election commitments,” he said.

“Securing funding to tackle this issue is important, but it must be targeted towards a wildlife control programme and the [agriculture] minister must move to lift the ceilings for the live valuation scheme immediately,” he added.

IFA Farm Business chair Bill O’Keeffe said that the renewal of the various tax reliefs was very important, but some of the taxation changes will be costly for farmers.

“The reduction in the flat rate addition for VAT will cost farmers over €61 million this year. Farm families will also be disappointed with the failure to lift the tax bands,” O'Keefe said. 

"The decision to kick the residential zoned land tax (RZLT) issue down the road continues the uncertainty for those farmers impacted by this fundamentally unfair tax.

“The government must exempt land being actively farmed from this penal tax,” he said.