IFA Hold Pre-Budget Talks with Minister Simon Harris & Minister Jack Chambers

IFA President Francie Gorman led a delegation this week to meet the Minister for Finance Simon Harris and the Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers to discuss IFA’s pre-Budget submission.

“The three main pillars of the IFA submission are the expansion of farm schemes, supports to mitigate the inflationary costs of production, and the retention and enhancement of the tax reliefs that encourage the transfer land to genuine farmers” he said. 

This has been a very tough year for farmers, with spiralling costs, lower commodity prices and the financial effects of the dry conditions,” he said.

“It’s imperative that the unallocated funds from the Fuel Scheme are retained within Agriculture and used to significantly enhance the scheme. The Govt must also ensure that they provide the 200% matching funding for the €15m of EU fertiliser supports. The cost of fertiliser has rocketed due to the energy crisis and the CBAM tax and this funding must be distributed out to farmers,” he said. 

“With reduced margins expected across most farm sectors this year, we re-iterated the fundamental importance of farm schemes to farm incomes. We need increased funding for schemes such as TAMS and ANC and we cannot have linear cuts to any schemes as we had last year,” he said. 

“Among the other key priorities we emphasised were a permanent RZLT exemption for active farmers. We also raised the need to focus Agricultural Relief on genuine farmers and increase inheritance thresholds, and to widen use of accelerated capital allowances to facilitate investment that improve on-farm efficiency,” he said.