Carol Nolan (Offaly, Independent)
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700. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the measures he is implementing to enhance financial supports for small farmers with annual incomes below €20,000; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37384/25]

Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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My Department operates a wide range of schemes to support farmers in their farming businesses, including those with annual incomes under € 20,000.

Funding is provided through Pillar 1 and Pillar 2 schemes operated under Ireland's CAP Strategic Plan (CSP). The many measures/schemes within the CSP have been designed to ensure that farmers, irrespective of scale, enterprise or land type have focused supports to assist their farm business. Total payments of c. €1.8bn are distributed each year to farmers under the CSP.

Recognising the distinct sectoral pressures that exist my Department also operates a number of nationally funded schemes outside the CSP but complementary to it. These schemes were introduced to deal with the particular pressures that exist, for example in the livestock sector. As an example, in Budget 2025, some €32m was allocated to schemes supporting the beef sector.

Many of the schemes already in place have a front loading element to payments, to assist smaller farmers. A prime example of this is the Complementary Redistributive Income Support for Sustainability (CRISS). It is designed to redistribute CAP funds from larger farms to medium and smaller sized farms, with payments over €118m issuing annually to all active farmers on their first 30 hectares.

Also recently under simplification measures implemented by my Department, farms under 10 hectares have become exempted from controls related to compliance with conditionality requirements.