The Irish Farmers' Association (IFA) has said that Budget 2025 does not go far enough in addressing a crisis in farm incomes.

IFA president Francie Gorman stated that more supports are needed to keep the suckler, sheep, dairy-beef and tillage sectors going.

“The increase in supports for suckler cows, sheep and dairy-beef calves will be some help to farmers in the drystock sector,” Gorman commented.

“However, the reality is that these sectors need more support, as they drive economic activity in rural Ireland,” he said.

“Our tillage sector has had a torrid two years. The number of acres under crops will be in serious jeopardy in the coming years.

“This payment will help farmers this year, but a medium- and long-term plan is needed to protect and grow our tillage and horticulture sectors.”

The association’s farm business chair Bill O’Keeffe claimed that the budget was cost-of-living focused, rather than a “cost of doing business budget”.

“Many measures in the budget will help families, including farm families with cost-of-living pressures, but will not do a lot to address the cost of doing business, which for farmers has increased by 73% since 2017,” O’Keeffe said.

Tax changes

O’Keeffe recognised the Government’s commitment to exclude active farmers from the residential zoned land tax, but expressed concerns on how an exclusion mechanism will work in practice.

The first bills are due to land with affected landowners in February.

On the topic of active farmers, the farm business chair stated that the announcement that tests will apply on agri reliefs to help prevent non-farming investors from benefiting from the measures “went a long way towards the proposals made by [the] IFA”.

“The increase in the threshold for inheritance will also be helpful for farm families who are in the process of organising the orderly transfer of their farms,” he said.

The IFA did not comment on its thoughts on €5m allocated to a scheme for forgotten farmers, as it is awaiting further detail on the plans, while it welcomed the increase in the flat-rate VAT refund from 4.8% to 5.1%.