Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue will be engaging with farm organisations over the coming weeks, to determine what measures farmers will have to carry out to receive new scheme payments under Budget 2025.

Farmers will have to complete new actions to get the €25/head increase in the Beef Welfare Scheme and the €5/ewe boost for sheep farmers.

However, there are no concrete actions on the table yet.

On the Beef Welfare Scheme, the minister said he has no plans to increase the 40 calf limit under the scheme. A decision has also to be made on what sector will benefit from the Dairy Beef Scheme, which has a new payment of €40/calf, up from €20. Fine Gael has said that €20/calf will go to the calf breeder, with the other €20 going to the calf rearer.

The minister also announced funding for a new IBR programme.

“We’ll have to consider how we’ll carve that up in terms of the design of the scheme. We’ll be engaging with the farming community as to the different measures and the approaches that will be taken.

“It’s going to be a requirement that we develop an IBR programme to maintain our live animal exports,” he told the Irish Farmers Journal.

He believes the scheme will safeguard the export of almost 80,000 Irish calves to the Netherlands next spring.

“This new scheme will ensure that we’re compliant,” he said, adding that Department officials are working on it at present, with the aim of the scheme being finalised at the start of 2025.

Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue confirmed to the Irish Farmers Journal that the €100/ha tillage payment will be paid on crops planted in 2024.

Farmers will be paid at the start of 2025 for the scheme, he said.

He also confirmed that the Straw Incoporation Measure (SIM) will return in 2025 with a budget of €10m.

Forgotten farmers received €5m under Budget 2025, with the minister stating that further funding will be needed for them going forward.

“What we’ve got now is agreement and approval to actually commence the process. It was a significant objective of mine. It will have to be significantly added to in the budget next year.

“This will allow us to open it up and to commence it,” he said.

He has allocated €60m to the Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme for 2025.

This is fresh money, he said, with no carryover from 2024 as a result of the lack of payment for non-productive investments (NPIs) or landscape actions.

Slurry storage

European Commission approval is being sought for a 60% grant aided Nutrient Storage Scheme, a separate scheme to the Nutrient Importation Slurry Storage (NISS).

This new scheme will be 60% grant aided and will have a separate investment ceiling of €90,000.

There will be a new exemption for farmers with land zoned under the residential zoned land tax (RZLT). A new measure will be introduced with direction from the housing minister to local authorities where farmers can apply for their land to be de-zoned.