Martin Daly (Roscommon-Galway, Fianna Fail)
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804. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if his Department has conducted an assessment of milk and beef prices in the west of Ireland; the findings of same; the measures being considered to support farmers in Roscommon and Galway; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [61485/25]

Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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To ensure transparency for supply chain stakeholders, my Department publishes a weekly Meat Market Report which provides selected indicators of trends in prices, factory throughput and live trade for the four main animal species. This report is additional to other cattle statistics published by my Department and complements data available on the Bord Bia and CSO websites. All this information is used to assess market conditions and developments and informs policy-making for relevant sectors.

The CSO also publish milk price data. Milk prices are received from milk purchasers every month as a regulatory requirement and this information is monitored and reviewed by my Department on an ongoing basis to inform dairy sector policy and decision making. The Milk Market Observatory of the European Commission also publishes monthly data on the raw milk prices in each member state on its website: Milk - European Commission (europa.eu).

I secured €131 million in Budget 2026 to implement various schemes that will be specifically tailored to meet the needs of livestock farmers next year, including farmers in Roscommon and Galway.

These targeted supports, such as the Beef Welfare Scheme, the Sheep Welfare Scheme and Dairy Beef Weighing Scheme, will assist farm incomes and encourage positive actions on farm. I will announce full details of application periods, eligibility conditions and payment rates for these national supports during the course of 2026. Furthermore, I will continue to fund the National Genotyping Programme to support my ambition of genotyping the entire national bovine herd.

In addition, there are many other multi-annual schemes available under the current CAP Strategic Plan, which is worth €9.8 billion to farmers and rural communities between 2023 and 2027. CSP schemes of direct relevance to the livestock sector include the Suckler Carbon Efficiency Programme, the Sheep Improvement Scheme and the Dairy Beef Welfare Scheme.