Budget Measures Not Enough for Income Crisis in Farming

IFA President Francie Gorman said the farming measures announced in Budget ‘25 today would go some way towards addressing the pressures in farming, but they won’t do enough to 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.

The Minister has also confirmed funding for the tillage sector including potatoes and field vegetables.

“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’Keeffe said that the budget was a cost-of-living budget, rather than a cost of doing business budget. 

“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.

The IFA also welcomed the increase in the Flat Rate VAT refund from 4.8% to 5.1% and extension on the various agricultural reliefs.

The IFA has noted an allocation for the so called ‘forgotten Farmers and we are awaiting more detail on this.