Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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Support for the Irish sheep farmers is a key priority of mine including in the recent budget negotiations. My Department already provides significant support to the sheep sector under the CAP Strategic Plan (CSP), through a targeted scheme for sheep farmers - the Sheep Improvement Scheme (SIS) - as well as other CSP interventions such as ACRES and the Organic Farming Scheme which are open to both specialist sheep and mixed beef and sheep enterprises.

In addition to the substantial payments under the CSP specifically targeted at the drystock sector, I have also been able to secure a further €15m of exchequer funding for the sheep sector for 2024. This additional funding, when combined with the current €12 payment to SIS participants, will result in a payment equivalent to €20 per ewe to beneficiaries in 2024. This increased provision will be the highest ever payment provided to our vitally important sheep sector.

In announcing details of my Department’s budget for 2024, I emphasised that my primary focus was on protecting farmer incomes while at the same time funding the agriculture sector’s environmental ambition and on-farm sustainability. The significantly improved payment announced in Budget 2024 will assist in alleviating input cost inflation for sheep enterprises which have greatly impacted on their profitability despite the record returns available to producers in recent years.

My officials are currently considering the potential measures by which the extra funding can best be directed to sheep farmers in 2024 taking into account EU State Aid rules governing these types of support schemes. I will be in a position to announce further details on measure design and implementation arrangements once this process has concluded and outline to farmers how this money will be directed to them in 2024.