The average entitlement value for a farm in Ireland is €254.

The value of an entitlement varies widely across counties, with a difference of €108/ha between the highest and lowest entitlement values.

On a provincial basis, the average payment is:

  • Leinster - €284.
  • Munster - €261.
  • Ulster - €246.
  • Connaught - €222.

    • County breakdown

    Carlow has the highest average direct payment value of any county in Ireland, with the average entitlement worth €311/ha (including greening).

    Leinster is well represented among the counties with the highest payment values per hectare.

    The top five counties of Carlow (€311), Kilkenny (€309), Wexford (€307), Laois (€307) and Louth (€292) are all part of the eastern province.

    Perhaps unsurprisingly, counties along the western seaboard receive the lowest average payments per hectare.

    Leitrim ranks in 26th position with an average payment of €203/ha.

    The five lowest counties by payment is filled out by Donegal (€205), Kerry (€208), Mayo (€210) and Sligo (€212).

    Average payment

    The average entitlement values per county were published by Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed in response to a parliamentary question by Fianna Fáíl’s spokesperson for agriculture Charlie McConalogue.

    Minister Creed also detailed the average payment received by a farm in each county.

    Farms in Waterford had the highest average payment of €15,138.

    This was almost €680 higher than the next-highest average payment of €14,459 in Kilkenny.

    Those counties receiving the lowest average payments were over twice as low as the largest payments.

    Again, farms in Co Leitrim attracted the smallest payment per holding of €6,112, which was €224 lower than the next smallest average of €6,335 in Co Mayo.

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