Cathy Bennett (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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1453. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of farmers that fall within the cohort known as the so-called forgotten farmers; the amount of funding necessary to redress their exclusion from young farmer supports; if the allocation to the long-established young farmers scheme is sufficient to fully redress all impacted farmers; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [59845/25]

Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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The scheme to support Long Established Young Farmers, more commonly referred to as "forgotten farmers", closed for submission of online applications on 13th August 2025. There were 1,254 applications submitted under the scheme by the closing date. These applications are currently being assessed and applicants will be notified of the outcome in due course.

The allocation of €5 million in Budget 2025 to provide support for this cohort of farmers will be used to provide the maximum possible payment to eligible applicants, in accordance with the terms and conditions of the scheme.

Cathy Bennett (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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1454. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the basis upon which the long-established young farmers scheme is limited to those who had commenced in agriculture prior to 2008; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [59846/25]

Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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Since the time my Department was first approached in 2015 with regard to the group commonly referred to as "forgotten farmers", the group was defined as young farmers who were under the age of 40 in 2015, had established their holdings prior to 2008 and were not eligible for young farmer supports under the CAP from 2015. The request for support for this category of farmers 2015 was for inclusion under the Basic Payment Scheme National Reserve as a group suffering from specific disadvantage. This definition of forgotten farmer has remained consistent since 2015.

The CAP from 2015 provided supports to young farmers who had established their holdings from 2010. Furthermore, in recognition of the withdrawal of the Installation Aid Scheme in October 2008, and following my Department’s consultation with the EU Commission, the then Minister announced in March 2015 that the group commonly known as ‘Old Young Farmers’, who established their holding between 1 January 2008 and 31 December 2009, and who, due to the timeframe of setting up their holding did not benefit from either Installation Aid or the Young Farmer category of the National Reserve, could be considered as a ‘group suffering from specific disadvantage’. The result was that this group was eligible to apply for support under the National Reserve measure of the 2015 Basic Payment Scheme.

The application window for the scheme to support Long Established Young Farmers has closed and there are no plans to extend the eligibility criteria.