Minister to attend Food Vision Tillage Group December meeting
Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Martin Heydon is to attend the December meeting of the Food Vision Tillage Stakeholder Group tomorrow (Wednesday, December 10).
According to Irish Grain Growers’ Group (IGGG) co-secretary, Bobby Miller, this is the first time that an agriculture minister has attended a meeting of the group in-person.
Miller said: “Martin Heydon’s attendance at the event demonstrates his commitment to the tillage sector.
"This must be viewed as a positive development."
Meanwhile, discussions continue to take place between the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and the stakeholder group on the roll-out of the new €30 million tillage support measure, committed to by the government in Budget 2026.
Miller said: “The expectation is that the monies will be paid out in the first half of 2026.
"Obviously, the sooner this happens, the better it will be from the point of view of tillage farmers."
Significantly, the IGGG representative was not in a position to confirm if the new measure would be a one-off payment or a multi-annual commitment on the part of the government.
Brussels visit
Recent days have seen members of an IGGG delegation visiting Brussels, where they met a number of Irish MEPs.
Topics brought up for discussion included the ongoing CAP review, the introduction of a new Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) fertiliser tax and the implications of a Mercosur trade deal on Irish agriculture.
Miller explained: “Where the new fertiliser tax is concerned, the core question is a very simple one: how will Irish tillage farmers be able to secure the extra market returns they need to compensate for the extra expense they will incur while purchasing fertiliser next year and into the future?
“We received a positive reception from the MEPs that we met in Brussels.
"Where Mercosur is concerned, IGGG members made it very clear that Irish tillage farmer have been living with a de facto trade deal of this sort for years where grain, oilseeds and animal feed imports into the country are concerned.
“And it all adds up to a very bad news story for the tillage sector as a whole - without exception."
IGGG meetings
Seperately, IGGG has also announced that it will be hosting two meetings over the coming days.
The first of these will be held in the Tullamore Court Hotel on Friday evening (December 12).
The second will be held next week in the Riverside Park Hotel, Enniscorthy on Tuesday, December 16.
