Minister Heydon Must Revisit Cuts to Sheep Welfare Scheme Payments – IFA

IFA Sheep Chair Adrian Gallagher said the Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon must revisit the linear cut to the Sheep Welfare Scheme and secure the funding necessary to pay farmers in full the €13/ewe the scheme provided for.

Adrian Gallagher said cutting the payment levels in the National exchequer sheep scheme is a retrograde step and sets a very dangerous precedent for the sector at a critical time.

He said production from the sector has fallen by over 800,000 head in the past two years with generational renewal within the sector at crisis point.

The IFA Sheep Chair said the Ministers own party in advance of the last general election committed to providing €30/ewe through national and CAP funding, but his first act has been to cut the level of supports by €1.50/head that sheep farmers will receive.

Adrian Gallgaher said sheep farming is the second largest farm sector in the country, our most vulnerable sector and carried out in some of the most difficult terrain and land types that is farmed.

The sector plays a pivotal role in the social, economic and environmental wellbeing of the most rural parts of this country.

The IFA Sheep Chair said it will cost just over €2m to pay all sheep farmers in the scheme in full, the Minister can and must find this funding to honour his and his government colleagues’ commitments to sheep farmers.

He said sheep farmers entered the scheme in good faith, we have carried out the actions on our farms and incurred the costs, sheep farmers do not have the capacity or resources to be shortchanged by the Minister in this way.

The decision to cut the payments must be reviewed and the funding provided to pay all farmers in full the €13/ewe they expected from the scheme when incurring the costs of participation.