Over €2m paid in forgotten farmers scheme
The number of farmers that have benefited from the Long Established Young Farmers scheme is 445, with a total value of payments of €2,225,000, it’s been confirmed.
Broken down by county, Donegal had the most recipients (33), and Dublin had the fewest (one).
The scheme to Support Long Established Young Farmers - commonly referred to as the Forgotten Farmers - launched on July 22, 2025, and closed to applications on August 13 in the same year.
An allocation of €5 million was set out in Budget 2025 to fund the scheme.
The Forgotten Farmers are a group who were under the age of 40 in 2015.
They had started a career in agriculture prior to 2008 but did not receive young farmer Installation Aid and were not eligible for young farmer supports under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) from 2015 due to the date they had first set up in agriculture.
Fianna Fáil TD Aindrias Moynihan queried Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Martin Heydon about the forgotten farmers scheme.
The Cork North-West TD queried how many farmers received payment and how much was paid.
Payments
Minister Heydon said: “The number of farmers that have benefited from the Long Established Young Farmers scheme is 445, with a total value of payments of €2,225,000.”
The table below, provided by the minister in response to Deputy Moynihan, provides the detail of the number and amounts paid over to each county:
| County | No. Paid | Value of payment € |
| Carlow | 18 | 90,000 |
| Cavan | 24 | 120,000 |
| Clare | 20 | 100,000 |
| Cork | 35 | 175,000 |
| Donegal | 33 | 165,000 |
| Dublin | 1 | 5,000 |
| Galway | 30 | 150,000 |
| Kerry | 30 | 150,000 |
| Kildare | 2 | 10,000 |
| Kilkenny | 13 | 65,000 |
| Laois | 9 | 45,000 |
| Leitrim | 20 | 100,000 |
| Limerick | 18 | 90,000 |
| Longford | 14 | 70,000 |
| Louth | 2 | 10,000 |
| Mayo | 28 | 140,000 |
| Meath | 9 | 45,000 |
| Monaghan | 19 | 95,000 |
| Offaly | 19 | 95,000 |
| Roscommon | 13 | 65,000 |
| Sligo | 20 | 100,000 |
| Tipperary | 21 | 105,000 |
| Waterford | 8 | 40,000 |
| Westmeath | 12 | 60,000 |
| Wexford | 19 | 95,000 |
| Wicklow | 8 | 40,000 |
| Total | 445 | 2,225,000 |
Last year, a total of 809 applications out of 1,254 submitted to the "Forgotten Farmers" scheme were "deemed ineligible" according to the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM).
