The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) requires an additional €98 million to "meet costs that will arise in 2025" Minister Martin Heydon has confirmed.

The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine this evening (Wednesday, November 19) told the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Agriculture and Food that DAFM needs extra funding this year because of "cost pressures" from bovine TB, and farm payments due under the Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES).

According to the minister a "supplementary estimate" is needed for the rest of this year to "top up" the money required to meet DAFM's commitments.

Minister Heydon told TDs and senators that in the last year farmers "have been severely impacted by the increase in animal disease levels, most notably Bovine TB and more recently avian influenza".

He outlined to the joint committee that an additional €63 million will be allocated to tackle TB in 2025 while an additional €35 million is needed for ACRES to "be used to meet outstanding 2023 and 2024 liabilities and to make advance payments to 2025 active participants".

This will bring the total 2025 ACRES expenditure to €295 million.

Minister Heydon highlighted to members of the joint committee that there are four key programme areas in DAFM.

Programme A: Food Safety, Animal and Plant Health and Animal Welfare

This programme is being increased by 11.73% or €52 million and the overall increase is due to the Supplementary Estimate increase of €63 million for TB, however DAFM has also made savings of €11 million across all four programmes.

The herd incidence rate by November 17, over a 12-month period, was 5.89%, with 38,243 reactors recorded.

He also warned that for 2025, the overall direct cost to the Exchequer of the TB programme, excluding staff costs, may be in the region of €135 million.

Programme B: Farm Sector Supports and Control

The total allocation for Programme B is being increased by approximately €44 million. This includes an additional €35 million for ACRES.

According to Minister Heydon advance payments of €147 million for 2025 started last week, to nearly 34,000 Tranche 1 participants and payments will issue to a further 8,000 Tranche 2 participants this week

The minister also detailed this evening that the extra funding will see €2 million allocated to beef schemes, €2 million for Areas of Natural Constraint,  €3.532 million for Knowledge Transfer,  €4.798 million for Organics, €2.4 million for Tillage, and €5.1 million for Targeted Agriculture Modernisation Schemes (TAMS).

Programme C: Policy and Strategy

Funding under this programme will increase by €5.398 million to €436 million.

An additional €11 million is being provided to support the Sustainable Beef and Lamb Quality Assurance Scheme which is managed by Bord Bia.

This funding represents an advance payment to Bord Bia in respect of 2026 and will cover the costs of Bord Bia audits for beef and sheep farmers in the Quality Assurance Schemes.

Programme D: Seafood Sector

Under this programme the funding allocation been reduced from just under €177 million to €173.57 million according to Minister Heydon.