Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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472. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the estimated full-year cost of returning a payment, by amounts (details supplied) for two schemes combined, based on the most recent participation figures at hand, in tabular form. [40975/24]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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In Budget 2025, I secured additional exchequer funding to increase supports for primary production in the sheep sector.

There are two existing schemes to support sheep farmers – the CSP Sheep Improvement Scheme (SIS) and the 2024 National Sheep Welfare Scheme (NSWS).

Farmers participating in both schemes who correctly complete all the action requirements can currently expect to receive a combined payment of €20 per breeding ewe.

No change is anticipated to current payment rates under SIS as a result of Budget 2025.

The additional funding that I secured will be targeted towards increasing payment rates by €5 per head under the NSWS in 2025 which will allow a combined maximum payment from both schemes of €25 per breeding ewe next year.

In order to increase NSWS per head payment rates in the increments suggested by the Deputy, the total scheme budget would have to increase as set out in the table below.

However, it is important to note that the number of participants and animals eligible for payment under any sheep scheme will depend on a variety of factors such as general market conditions at the time of launch, the menu of actions required to draw down the maximum payment, compliance rates for those actions and the extent to which the action options are suited to particular production systems in the target population.

Any increase in scheme funding is subject to State Aid considerations.