IFA Hold pre-Budget Discussions with Minister Heydon

IFA President Francie Gorman led a delegation yesterday afternoon to meet the Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon and senior DAFM officials to discuss IFA’s pre-Budget submission.

“The three main pillars of the IFA submission are the retention and expansion of farm schemes, supports to mitigate the inflationary costs of production, and retention of the tax reliefs that underpin the sector.”

“With reduced margins expected across most farm sectors this year, we re-iterated the fundamental importance of ANC and other national schemes to farm income. We also reinforced that linear cuts to national schemes, like what happened last year to the sheep and livestock schemes, will not be tolerated by farmers. New applicants need to be budgeted for, not funded from existing scheme participants. Anybody who applies and complies with the terms and conditions should not find themselves out of pocket at a later date,” he said.

“There was a lot of focus around the Straw Incorporation Measure. It’s positive that all eligible farmers have been accepted into the scheme, but this needs to be matched by additional funding to meet the demand in full. Minister Heydon confirmed he has engaged with relevant Government colleagues to secure additional funding to meet the levels of demand. But until it’s delivered upon, it’s hard for farmers to know whether it’s best to incorporate straw and avail of SIM, or to bale the straw and get prevailing market prices without SIM support – because they can’t do both. The need for more medium and long term supports to preserve and grow the sector was also emphasised,” Francie Gorman said.

“On costs, the initial Fuel Support Scheme payments are making their way to farmers and contractors from this week and this has to be acknowledged. The scheme was designed and implemented promptly and relatively simple to apply for.”

“It’s imperative now that any surplus or unallocated funds from the scheme are retained within Agriculture, with the appropriate balance struck between retaining funds for potentially another round of fuel supports given ongoing market volatilities, and the immediate or short-term funding around the Fertiliser Support Scheme (where maximum 200% co-financing is required on top of €15.4m secured from Europe) and Nutrient Storage investments within TAMS – each aligned with the broader parameter of building resilience and mitigating the costs of production.”    

“Among the other key priorities we emphasised were a permanent RZLT exemption for active farmers; a continuation of key taxation supports; and the need to address current discrepancies between the livestock VAT rate and Flat Rate Addition VAT rate which is costing farmers on the sale of livestock. We also raised the need to increase inheritance thresholds and make greater use of accelerated capital allowance (to include investments that improve on-farm efficiency, animal health/welfare etc) as a potential means of supporting necessary investment and mitigating inflationary cost pressures,” he concluded.

IFA’s campaign will continue with meetings at County Executive level between now and October.