The Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) is calling for the 2025 National Sheep Welfare Scheme to be practical to implement.
Following the announcement of Budget 2025, IFA National Sheep chair Adrian Gallagher said that total support payments for ewes have now increased to €25/ewe.
Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue announced €22 million in exchequer funding for the Sheep Welfare Scheme for next year, which will run alongside the €12/ewe available under the Sheep Improvement Scheme (SIS).
Gallagher said that the increase of €7 million in funding for the Sheep Welfare Scheme increases the rate of payment by €5/ewe, from €8 to €13/ewe next year.
Sheep Welfare Scheme
The IFA National Sheep chair said that the increase in supports for the sheep sector to €25/ewe had followed two years of campaigning by the farm organisation.
He said this level of support is vital for the sector and will need to be built on to bring direct support levels to a minimum of €30/ewe.
Gallagher said that this year’s National Sheep Welfare Scheme was “a well-designed and practical scheme for farmers”.
“The scheme for 2025 must follow a similar pattern and avoid any leakages from this important additional funding for sheep farmers,” he said.
Gallagher said that the IFA will be engaging with the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) “to ensure the scheme for 2025 is practical to implement, reflects the numbers of ewes on the farm and avoids unnecessary leakages of monies or administrative bureaucracy for farmers”.
The department of agriculture has been allocated over €2 billion as part of Budget 2025 which represents an increase on last year’s allocation which totalled €1.9 billion.
Over €716 million is being provided in 2025 for those participating in agri-environmental schemes such as the Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES), the Areas of Natural Constraint (ANC) scheme, forestry, and organic farming.
The government confirmed that some €143 million of carbon tax funding will be provided to the DAFM in 2025.