IFA presidential candidate Francie Gorman has called on the government to increase its support for farmers and the agricultural sector in Budget 2024.
The Laois farmer and current IFA south Leinster chair said there was a “failure to provide any meaningful supports to the sector in last year’s budget.”
Gorman told Minister for Public Expenditure Paschal Donohoe at the National Ploughing Championships that agriculture is the “forgotten sector”.
Budget 2024
“It is not good enough that agriculture barely got a mention in Budget 2023,” Gorman told Minister Donohoe.
“It wasn’t on the agenda at the recent Fianna Fáil think-in at Horse and Jockey in Co.Tipperary and it wasn’t even considered at the Fine Gael gathering in Limerick last week until IFA members brought the issue to the front door of the conference venue.
“We are the one sector that will be here in hail, rain or snow when everybody else is gone.
“The government can find money for everything, such as Covid, the banks and the National Children’s Hospital,” he said.
Gorman added that any supports for farmers in Budget 2024 will “inevitably be repaid in spades to the Irish Exchequer”.
Farmers
In response, Minister Donohoe said: “You’re not forgotten by me. You’re not forgotten by Fine Gael. We’re actually having a conference on this topic in November.”
The minister continued: “In all the budgets I have done and everywhere I go, I have competing demands on me. And I’ve lots of cases being made to spend money.
“I can absolutely assure you that I recognise that many parts of Irish farming have had a terrible year. They’re under pressure from weather, from new directives and also from pricing.
“We’ll do our best around the budget,” Donohoe said.
Gorman, a beef, suckler and sheep farmer, is one of two candidates for the IFA presidency, along with current IFA National Treasurer and Limerick dairy farmer, Martin Stapleton.
He said that farmers are being “driven to breaking point” on various agricultural schemes because of difficulties with applications, delayed payments and approvals.
“You throw in a year like we have had with incessantly poor weather and huge input costs, and it’s easy understand why farmers are frustrated,” Gorman said.