Some 1,716 students received a green cert qualification in 2022 and although this was up on the 1,497 who graduated in 2021, it was still lower than pre-pandemic levels.

From the years 2018 to 2020, there were over 2,000 Teagasc graduates who attained trained farmer status [each year], Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue said in response to a parliamentary question from Aontú Leader Peadar Tóibín.

However, numbers were particularly low in 2014 and 2015, when there were just 741 and 884 graduates respectively. There were over 1,000 in 2013, 2016 and 2017.

Speaking in response to the statistics, the Aontú leader said that droves of young people from farming families are heading for Australia each week.

"The farming way of life isn't attractive to them - due to the poor price for beef, the rising input costs like fertiliser and so on.

"An awful lot of farmers currently feel trapped in the sector - farmers who the Government encouraged to get into dairy, who are now being threatened with talk of a cull of the national herd and punished with carbon taxes," he said.

'Shocking' state of beef sector

He went on to describe the beef sector as being in a shocking state, with the threat of Mercosur looming and ill-behaved factories and beef barons.

He said that young lads and girls up and down the country are witnessing late-night arguments between their parents over rising farm debts and they're opting to get as far away from this country as they can.

"It is heart-breaking - especially for families who've had the farm for multiple generations. It’s not surprising to me to see such a drop in the number of green certs issued - between 2018 and last year a drop of 1,000 certs.

"These statistics don't even show the full scale of the problem of youth emigration among young farmers, because many are getting the qualification before they leave for inheritance tax reasons.

"Aontú is calling on the Government to properly examine the rate of youth emigration from farming families and for the Government to determine also the suicide rate among farmers.

"We have a bill seeking a ban on the below-cost sale of beef, which would ensure that farmers get at least a break-even price for their produce. The Government must support this legislation," concluded Tóibín.