Budget 2025 – the main scheme announcements summarised

Funding for Agriculture increased by €158m, with €85m of this committed to new measures, according to Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue.

Darren Carty

2 October 2024

Budget 2025 – the main scheme announcements summarised

In his post-budget address, Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue outlined a €158m increase in funding, bringing the total Department spend to €2.11bn. Within this, the minister highlighted that €85m is being committed to new measures. The following is a summary of the main schemes securing funding and the changes from last year’s budget.

The following is a summary of the main schemes securing funding and the changes from last year’s budget.

Tillage support: The minister said he has delivered on his commitment of a €100/ha payment for farmers that planted tillage and field grown crops, including horticultural crops, for harvest 2024, as declared on a farmer’s 2024 Basic Income Support for Sustainability. This funding of approximately €30m is in addition to €10m allocated for the Straw Incorporation Measure in 2025, which the minister says will operate as normal.

Beef support: The National Beef Welfare Scheme has received an €8m top-up in funding, bringing the total funds available to €28m. The minister outlined that he plans to increase the payment rate from €50 per calf to €75 per calf, with farmers expected to have to complete another action to draw down the additional funding. It is also expected that farm organisations will look to apply pressure to try and get the limit of payment on 40 calves increased or removed.

Sheep support: The funding allocated to the Sheep Welfare Scheme has also been increased by over 45%, or €7m, with €22m in funding available for 2025. This will facilitate an increase in payment from €8 to €13 per ewe. It is expected that there will be additional actions included to justify the increased payment in the one-year scheme. It will continue to operate separate to the Sheep Improvement Scheme, with farmers participating in both having the potential to secure €25/ewe in support.

Organics scheme: An additional €10m has been added to funding for organics with €67m allocated for 2025. Minister Pippa Hackett welcomed the funding, highlighting that the Organic Farming Scheme will open soon. It is expected that funding will allow in the region of 850 to 1,000 applicants, which will likely bring the area of lands farmed organically from 5% to 6%.

ACRES funding: There is an additional €60m allocated to the Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme bringing total funding to €260m. This is required to fund an additional 9,000 applicants who joined in tranche II and satisfy spending under non-productive investments, landscape actions, etc.

Dairy beef scheme: It was mooted in the days leading up to the budget that a separate dairy beef scheme may be reintroduced, but as forecast last week this has not been the case. An additional €3.5m in funding has been allocated to the Dairy Beef Scheme introduced in 2024 and will lead to a doubling of payment from €20 to €40 per calf, to incentivise farmers to use high dairy beef index sires. The maximum number of calves eligible for payment was 50 calves.

Forgotten farmers: The forgotten farmers grouping received funding of €5m. It is unknown as of yet how this funding will be allocated.

Animal health: Funding of €10m has been allocated to “additional measures for animal health including targeted advice for farmers, as well as IBR and BVD”. The targeted advice refers to the continuation of the TASAH programme, which covers veterinary advice to farmers. The BVD programme received farmer funding of €3.75m in 2024, to help support the cost of continued tissue tag testing, so one would imagine this will at least be continued along with supports for the removal of infected animals. While there is also talk of an IBR programme being introduced, but funding available looks small.

Miscellaneous: Funding of €2.5m has been introduced for farm safety, along with taxation incentives. While the popular clover and multi-species swards measures have been allocated €1.5m and €1.25m, respectively. A further €6m has been allocated for the continuation of the soil-sampling programme.