Budget 2023 has not corrected the failings of previous Governments in addressing the issue of 'forgotten farmers', Macra has said.

Forgotten farmers are a cohort of around 3,500 farmers who lost out on funding following the removal of young farmer supports, such as installation aid, due to cuts in public expenditure by the Government following the last recession.

Macra president John Keane said it is now more than 14 years since some of these farmers started out in their farming careers.

“It is simply not good enough that the mistakes around the removal of supports have not been rectified,” he said.

“In the Programme for Government, it states in black and white that the Government will seek to resolve, under the next CAP, the issue of support for the category of farmers known as forgotten farmers.

“When the support was not detailed under the newly submitted CAP strategic plan, the Department of Agriculture cited reasons around qualifying criteria and meeting objectives as barriers, but assured Macra that this cohort of farmers were not forgotten,” he said.

Keane said Macra has lobbied extensively on the issue in the lead up to the budget, as it now seems the support is going to need to come from the national exchequer.

“These forgotten farmers can wait no longer, with rising input and energy costs and many investments having being put on hold with the commitments by the minister, the time to deliver meaningful supports for these farmers is now,” he said.

Minister

Speaking to the Irish Farmers Journal last week, Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue said he is engaging with the Department of Public Expenditure for a fund for these farmers.

“I’ve made a commitment to deliver an outcome for forgotten farmers and that’s something I’m continuing to engage around,” he said.