Budget Measures Not Enough for Income Crisis in Farming – IFA

IFA President Francie Gorman has commented on the farming measures announced in Budget 25 would reduce some of the pressures on farmers they would not adequately address the income crisis.  

The increase in supports for suckler cows, sheep and dairy beef calves will be some help to farmers in the drystock sector.  However, the reality is that these sectors need more support as they drive economic activity in rural Ireland,” he said. 

Budget 25 announced by the Minister for Finance also includes much needed funding for the tillage sector  

“Our tillage sector has had a torrid two years. The number of acres under crops will be in serious jeopardy in the coming years. This payment will help farmers this year, but a medium and long-term plan is needed to protect and grow our tillage and horticulture sectors,” he said. 

IFA National Farm Business Chair Bill O’Keefe has criticised the Budget saying that it focuses more on the cost of living than the cost of doing for farming families.  

“Many measures in the budget will help families, including farm families with cost-of- living pressures, but will not do a lot to address the cost of doing business which for farmers has increased by 73% since 2017,” he said.  

On the Residential Zoned Land Tax, he acknowledged the Government’s efforts to exclude genuine farmers from the tax. However, he expressed concerns about how the mechanism would work in practice.  

On Agricultural relief on farm transfer, he said that changes to target relief towards genuine farmers were important and went a long way towards the proposals made by IFA in our budget submission.  

“The increase in the threshold for inheritance will also be helpful for farm families who are in the process of organising the orderly transfer of their farms,” he said. 

Although they have raised some issues with the announcements made in Budget 25 the Irish Farmers’ Association have welcomed the increase in the Flat Rate VAT refund and extensions on various agricultural relief schemes. They have recognised these as allocations for ‘forgotten farmers’ and await further information.