The Irish government has “failed farmers” with its Budget for 2027, according to the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association (ICMSA).

The association's president Denis Drennan noted "improvements" announced in Capital Acquisition Tax (CAT) thresholds, the extension of the fuel scheme, and the national top-up of the EU fertiliser scheme.

However, he added that this year’s budget would be "remembered for fiddling around the margins of issues and doling out ‘penny packet’ measures”, while “ignoring the really important issues that get more urgent with every year they are ignored”.

Drennan said that the biggest issue in Irish farming right now and for the last decade is the lack of young people committing to the farming and food production sectors.

He argued that these sectors are not just the economic basis for most of rural Ireland, but also the "indispensable social and cultural factor outside the cities and bigger towns".  

Drennan noted that the reason many of the next generation cite for not taking over family farms is "the income volatility that traps farmers in endless ‘boom-bust’ cycles that make planning almost impossible and supporting a family downright precarious".

He added that this was highlighted in the recent Agriland-ICMSA survey

Drennan said: “ICMSA has been going to successive governments for over a decade now with detailed plans that would allow farmers to deposit money in Revenue-approved schemes in 'good’ years and then draw down on that money in the inevitable ‘bad’ years that follow.  

"Our politicians and civil servants do not appear to understand the succession crisis that’s already looming up in front of Ireland’s flagship farming and food sector.”

Noting that one-in-three of those surveyed in the Agriland-ICMSA survey had indicated an intention to exit farming within five years, the ICMSA president asked: 

“What’s going to happen the massive economic injection that family farming provides into every rural parish in the state?  

According to Drennan, the most “frustrating” aspect is that a "solution" exists to provide income stability.

He continued: “Why won’t the government just take a tried-and-tested solution ‘off the shelf’ and introduce it to Irish farming so that we can at least try and give the next generation of family farms the minimum degree of income stability that they are entitled to expect?”  

Drennan added that the government and Budget 2027 “had failed farmers again” and raised "serious questions" about the government’s commitment to the agriculture sector.