Farmers will be able to secure a payment of up to €13 per ewe in the 2026 National Sheep Welfare Scheme. The scheme, with €22m allocated from Exchequer funding, was launched on Wednesday by Martin Heydon, Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine.

The scheme will operate in the same format as the 2025 scheme year, with farmers obliged to carry out two mandatory actions and having the option to carry out an optional action. With regard to category A mandatory options, farmers must opt at application stage to select two actions from a list including shearing, body condition scoring of ewes and appropriate follow-on management or vaccination of ewes.

As detailed in recent weeks, the vaccination for the bluetongue virus has been added to the category A vaccination of ewes action alongside clostridial disease vaccination. Completion of these two actions is worth €8 per ewe.

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Category B actions

Farmers must also declare at application stage if they wish to complete a Category B action, with the payment here worth up to €5 per ewe. If the scheme is oversubscribed, then there is a potential for a lower payment here. This will be influenced by the number of sheep that are entered in to the scheme.

The two options are also unchanged on 2025 and include footbathing or plunge dipping to control external parasites.

Actions selected must be completed by 13 October 2026. However, the Department of Agriculture explains that applicants who are unable to complete their chosen action by that date can select a later completion date of 24 November 2026 at application stage. It should be stated that opting for a later completion date will push payment under the scheme until January 2027 at the earliest. As is the case in previous years, details of completed actions must be recorded on the scheme action record book.

Payment number

The maximum number of breeding ewes eligible for payment under the scheme will be based on the average of the three sheep census returns for eligible breeding ewes declared by the applicant for the years 2023 to 2025. Where the 2025 census return is higher than the average presented, the farmer or Farm Advisor System (FAS) advisor acting on a farmer’s behalf can overwrite the average and claim up to the 2025 number if they so wish. Participants must carry out their chosen actions on whatever number of eligible breeding ewes they select at application stage.

Commitment to sector

In launching the scheme, Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon reiterated his commitment to supporting the sheep sector. “The scheme launched today is separate from, but complementary to, the multi-annual Sheep Improvement Scheme (SIS) funded under Ireland’s CAP Strategic Plan until 2027. To date, approximately 16,700 farmers have received payments totalling €18.2 million for participating in the third year of the SIS, with the balancing payment for the 2025 SIS due to issue in early May 2026. Under the 2025 NSWS, just over €21.2 million has been paid to almost 16,800 participants to date.”

“Today’s scheme consists of straightforward measures that are applicable to all types of sheep enterprises. They are practical to implement on all sheep enterprises including those not currently participating in the existing SIS. Good flock biosecurity is important for the overall improvement in health, welfare and productivity of animals, and will reduce the incidence of disease on farms. For this reason, I announced last week that bluetongue vaccination has been included as an eligible action in the 2026 NSWS.”

Footbathing change

There is an important footbathing change to note for farmers who opt to complete this action. A product which is categorised as a registered biocidal product must be used. The terms and conditions state that this is a product which possesses a PCS 9xxxx No, PCS 10xxxx No, IE/BPA 7xxxx No, or EU -xxxxxxxxxxx No, on the product label.

The terms and conditions state; “copper and zinc sulphate are not registered biocidal products and should not be used for NSWS. If these or other illegal/non-registered biocidal products are used, it will result in non-payment and a penalty in NSWS 2026”.

The terms and conditions advise scheme participants who select this action to ask their agri-retailer, veterinary supplier etc for advice on available registered biocidal products for foot bathing. “Registered biocidal products in Ireland fall under two categories, one list can be found at Biocidal Product Register – Home and the second list found at Information on biocides – ECHA. Foot bathing products are included in Product Type 3 only”.

Application process

As stated already, applications must be submitted online through the MyAgfood.ie or agfood.ie portal by 23.59 on 15 May 2026. It is important to note that the NSWS is a separate scheme to the SIS, and as such a separate application procedure applies for both schemes. The full terms and conditions of the NSWS and other relevant scheme information are available at the following link: https://www.gov.ie/en/department-of-agriculture-food-and-the-marine/services/2026-national-sheep-welfare-scheme/. See also more in sheep management notes on page 62.