The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine has confirmed that he has “not yet received the funds” for the €100/ha in financial support that he has pledged to deliver to tillage farmers.
Minister Charlie McConalogue announced a “commitment” earlier this month at the Fianna Fáil Ard Fheis to deliver “monetary support” to the tillage sector.
He said: “I am committing to deliver €100/ha for tillage farmers who plant field crops in 2024”.
However, in the Dáil this week Minister McConalogue confirmed that the funding for this support package “will have to be identified and secured”.
“It is not funding that was in my most recent budget and there are no plans for a mini-budget, but I, as minister, have given the commitment to farmers that I will deliver on the funding and work over the months ahead to secure it.
“It was important that farmers got the commitment in advance of being able to get into the fields to give them the confidence to go ahead with planting,” he said.
According to Minister McConalogue at the end of the harvest last year the government “intervened to provide support”.
“I secured in last year’s budget compensation of €1,000/ha for unharvested crops and €50/ha for all tillage crops in light of the difficult year and harvest.
“I have now moved to commit to €100/ha for all in the tillage sector. It will be for all field-grown crops, apart from the protein crops, which will have a separate and much larger payment, as in previous years,” he told the Dáil.
But he also acknowledged that “over the months ahead, I will have to identify the funding” for the €100/ha pledge.
Tillage farmers
According to the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) president, Francie Gorman, the government has to put “their hands in their pockets and support farmers”.
“Optimism doesn’t pay bills – it’s money that pays the bills,” he added.
Gorman also believes that the €100/ha pledge from Minister McConalogue is far off the mark and he believes needs to be closer to €250/ha to make a real difference for tillage farmers.
“The need for support in the tillage sector is so acute at the minute, if you were to take your job seriously as a government minister or a government supporting a sector at this time – the tillage sector needs support the way the banking sector received support, like insurance or the beef sector or dairy and pigs did last year.
“The absolute acute need for support in the tillage sector is there at the moment – that’s why the government needs to do something more substantial than the minister’s announcement.
“The minister’s announcement has no terms and conditions or budget applied to that yet,” Gorman said.